In July when driving home from a long fourth of July weekend I start to hear a fairly loud knock in my 83' 242ti so I ease off the gas and the noise keeps getting louder and more painful to listen to. I manage to creep into a gas station a short distance away where the engine still runs but very roughly and extremely noisy with no power. Towed it home with a tow dolly the next day (20miles), and it has been sitting since (I'm a bike commuter, plus able to borrow girlfriends car).

I havent torn into it yet beacuse it took me a while of reading and listening to audio clips online to figure out it was likely rod knock (I was chasing regular knock, looking for lean symptoms but found none) and now I'm pretty sure it was a rod bearing going out. The car will barely start and runs extremely rough/noisy (I did this before figuring out it was likely worn out rod bearings).

My question is: is it feasible to pull the oil pan and replace the bearings while the engine remains in the car (if the crank journals aren't shot)? I just graduated from college in June, and now that summer is over and it's time to start the "career search" It would be nice to get this beast back up and running. I have removed the oil pan before with the engine in the car and It was a long rough job, so I would like to ask from some brickboarders if its worthwhile before digging into this job in my semi covered carport. Up until the time this happened the car was running well and could pull nice and hard while under boost. I'm just glad it didn't throw a rod.

83' 242ti @ 235k miles

Thanks for some ideas,

Zack

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Zack Silver 83' 242Ti (230k)