So a very good friend of mine recently ran her 97 1.6 16 valve out of oil....and continued driving it for 80 miles......yeah.....really....anyways we got it towed home and amazingly it only started a light rod knock after about 2200 rpm but sounded pretty healthy.  I went ahead and pulled the front axle, oil pan etc off and found that 1, 2, and 4 were in almost perfect shape with some light marring on number 3 crank.  I polished it up a bit, measured and it was still round and within spec so I put new bearings in it.  Now drives (no rod knock, huzzah!) and sounds healthy but way down on power.  Do these motors have a hydraulic chain tensioner?  Is it possible that it skipped a tooth on the timing chain?  Or is it more likely that it has rounded cam lobes?  Are these interference engines?  She really is in love with this little car but doesn't have a ton of money to throw into it.  I did do a tune up on it while I was changing the rod bearings(new cap, rotor, plugs, wires, air filter).

Wow 80 miles without oil..?!!! i would bet the cam and followers are toast.did you do a compression test too ?

Wow 80 miles without oil..?!!! i would bet the cam and followers are toast.did you do a compression test too ?

X2  - Check the cam and compression. I'm dying to see a picture of the internals!

Good luck, Eric

I have not done a compression test yet.  But the internals amazingly looked good on the bottom end.  None of the rod bearings were spun, and 3/4 of them looked to be in normal shape, only the #3 rod bearing was eaten up, a bit squished, will get pictures up of them tonight.  Will probably do a compression test tomorrow afternoon and see what's up, looks like the timing belt isn't that hard to change out on these so I will probably pull the timing cover off and see if it has jumped time as well.  Do these hydraulic tensioners?

A person would think that the cam would have issue's as well but you would here them rattling and need adjusting.

It sounds pretty darn smooth up till 4500ish rpm, then it has a rattle when coming off throttle.

That would be piston slap

That would be piston slap

That is not what I wanted to hear....crap guess new piston pins may also be necessary...didn't think of them.  At this point I am tempted to yank the motor and just do a fresh rebuild.  Rebuild kits are cheap on Rockauto.  283$ plus shipping, that combined with a dozen cans of brake clean, engine assembly lube, a motor stand, engine hoist, some engine paint, gasket maker, etc......I am assuming these are not hard engines to pull out.  Anything special to look out for?  Easier to pull with the transmission/transfer case or separate them in the car?  The rattle sounds like it may be valve related so will check that first.

I find it easier to leave transfer and trans in IMO ive done 3 motors in 2yrs

How hard is it to pull all the transmission bolts loose while still in the car?  I have basic hand tools and no lift.  Generally doing the actual engine pulling outside on the dirt.   

Well, took another look at the suzuki today, and before I pulled the valve cover off I noticed I forgot to plug in the air temp sensor a well as the MAF.  Plugged them in and now the little suzuki has power again.  But there is some engine noise happening after 3000 rpm, possible that the #3 rod bearing has too much clearance.  I am thinking at this point I just drain the oil and refill with 20/50 and see what happens.  The folks that own the car don't want to drop 1300$ into rebuilding this motor.  I will also let the little car idle till it's warmed up and see if the noise is still there.

I am guessing that they will probably want to sell this suzuki once they hear of the news.  So if anyone here would be interested in a 130,000ish mile sidekick in Colorado let me know.  All the problems I know about:  bent lip on front left wheel, broken grill, broken bumper cover, busted up left fender, aforementioned engine problem.  Has new: oil pan gasket, air filter, rotor, cap, spark plugs, plug wires, differential fluid, transfer case fluid.  Both of the front cv joints are in good shape, as well as all tie rods/ball joints.  Really would be a very nice little car with a new fender, bumper cover, and grill.  Rest of car is in very good shape.  Manual windows, door locks, front hubs, non ac car with full size spare.  Or if anyone in Colorado has a daily driver grade sidekick or tin top samurai that they are willing to trade/some cash on top also let me know.