Engine rattling / clunking when I shut it off

jeepXcore

TJ Enthusiast
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Joined
Jan 8, 2017
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269
Location
Collingswood, NJ, United States
I've noticed most of the time I shut my engine off, right before it completely shuts down, I hear/feel this rattle, knocking sound coming from the engine towards the bottom center. Starts up quietly, runs smoothly, only happens when I shut it down for a split second. Thoughts?
 
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Is this problem related to your problem here?
https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/gremlins-knocking-in-my-engine-after-engine-shutoff.4559/

Or is this something new?

It could be the catalytic converter or worn exhaust mounts causing the exhaust to sort of bounce around with the vibration of the engine turning off.


No, no that stopped once I did an oil change and started using synthetic. I think that was my lifters sticking.

This is a very short, abrupt sound now. I'm thinking it might be the cat or exhaust mounts. I'm gonna go under the truck and shake stuff around this weekend and see what I find. Thanks!
 
Sounds like engine run-on caused by carbon build-up in the combustion chambers. Carbon can continue to glow red after engine shut down and continue igniting remaining fuel vapor.

How do you drive your Jeep? Do you tend to drive very conservatively and try to keep the rpms low, or do you drive it hard/rev to higher rpms when needed on a somewhat regular basis?
 
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Sounds like engine run-on caused by carbon build-up in the combustion chambers. Carbon can continue to glow red after engine shut down and continue igniting remaining fuel vapor.

How do you drive your Jeep? Do you tend to drive very conservatively and try to keep the rpms low, or do you drive it hard/rev to higher rpms when needed on a somewhat regular basis?


Low rpms...I use it to commute to work in the the city(with their poorly maintained roads), so I normally don't hit the throttle hard unless I'm passing someone.
 
Low rpms...I use it to commute to work in the the city(with their poorly maintained roads), so I normally don't hit the throttle hard unless I'm passing someone.

High rpm, with moderation, can be good for engine longevity in terms of carbon within the cylinders. I try to take mine up to 4500-5000 at least once every few weeks. If much of your TJ's life has been sitting at idle or under 3000 rpm, you likely have a lot of carbon in the cylinders.

In terms of cleaning it out, I'm not sure if a bunch of high rpm pulls would do anything for you. There are products such as seafoam that claim to clean out carbon, but those products can open up a ton of other potential issues.
 
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High rpm, with moderation, can be good for engine longevity in terms of carbon within the cylinders.

X2 to this. What Jerry said makes complete sense. You should definitely not be driving it around at low rpms all the time. I think you may potentially have a carbon build up issue.
 
Low rpms...I use it to commute to work in the the city(with their poorly maintained roads), so I normally don't hit the throttle hard unless I'm passing someone.
Ok that could very well be from carbon deposits inside the combustion chambers then. That's a common problem when engines are driven too conservatively.

As a kid I saw a Corvette mechanic at a Chevy dealership repeatedly revving a big high-performance Corvette engine to redline and back down. Up & down. Crap was blowing out the exhaust as he did so. I asked why he was doing that and he bitched that Corvette owners regularly brought their cars in because they weren't running well and they had engine "run-on" as you described. The mechanic bitched that many Corvette owners were afraid to drive them as they were meant to be so carbon build-up was the result. Revving them hard to blow the carbon out was the cure, he said that was usually all he had to do to make them run well again.

So try this... it's called an "Italian Tune-Up" (Google it). Over no less than several days, when it's safe to do so of course, start driving your engine as aggressively as you can. Repeatedly revving the engine hard under wide-open-throttle and take it up to or at least near redline, like when getting onto the highway or freeway. Let the engine rev high and hard to blow out any possible carbon deposits. See if after a week or so if your symptoms don't get noticeably better or even completely go away.

It's of course not required to do that all the time but it's actually better for the engine if you occasionally push the engine hard with hard acceleration to high RPMs. That keeps it cleaned out inside.

One more thing that can help do it even more quickly. And yes I know what I'm about to describe sounds absolutely crazy like it'd cause hydro lock. But it's not crazy, it works, and done as described it gets rid of the carbon and cleans the combustion chambers. It was discovered during WWII by aircraft engine mechanics. Water injection. Yep, water. To develop more engine power to help get bomb-laden aircraft off the ground more quickly, water injection was added... which is still used to this day in some aircraft. The mechanics noticed that after the water injection was added that the combustion chambers were staying sparkling clean. No carbon deposits.

Nope you don't have to add water injection. What you do is this.... fill a 12 to 16 ounce container with tap water. Like a 16 ounce aluminum soft drink can. Remove the air intake from the throttle body. Start the engine and VERY CAREFULLY and SLOWLY start trickling the water into the throttle body while keeping the engine RPMs up with the throttle lever. Slowly enough that it should take no less than a couple minutes to drain the container. Maintain careful control over the can so you don't accidentally dump too much water at once into the throttle body.

What this will do is create steam which will create very small mini-shock waves inside of the combustion chambers (that area between the piston and the head) which will break up the carbon deposits which will be blown out through the exhaust.

Nope I'm not crazy, this is done all the time at most garages or dealerships. At least experienced mechanics will do it. It's commonly done because so many people drive their cars too conservatively thinking it's better for the engine. It's not. :)
 
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High rpm, with moderation, can be good for engine longevity in terms of carbon within the cylinders. I try to take mine up to 4500-5000 at least once every few weeks. If much of your TJ's life has been sitting at idle or under 3000 rpm, you likely have a lot of carbon in the cylinders.

In terms of cleaning it out, I'm not sure if a bunch of high rpm pulls would do anything for you. There are products such as seafoam that claim to clean out carbon, but those products can open up a ton of other potential issues.
I'm familiar with seafoam, I have a direct injection vw gti that has carbon build up problems as a result.

One of the first things I did to the tj when I got it was pour seafoam through the intake manifold and dump the rest in the gas tank. Maybe I need to do it again and then do that "Italian tune up"

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
With seafoam you warm the engine, pore a couple ounce in until the engine starts coughing, the shut it off right away. Let it set and soak over night.
I cured a valve leak with that method on my 1972 bmw motorcycle five years ago.
Be sure to use low octane gas. The expensive stuff just burns slower, which is not good for a low compression engine.
 
Putting sea foam in the gas will clean minor and hard to find problems in carbs and injectors.
Case is my 1980 xs650, I cleaned the carbs 2 times. Still not satisfied it was running right I put sea foam in the tank. Within 10 mile the idle increased 500 rpm.
It also smoothed out my 1982 goldwing.
If nothing is clogged it is worthless. If passage are really blocked with something other than a little varnish, it won't help.
 
I'm familiar with seafoam, I have a direct injection vw gti that has carbon build up problems as a result.

One of the first things I did to the tj when I got it was pour seafoam through the intake manifold and dump the rest in the gas tank. Maybe I need to do it again and then do that "Italian tune up"

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Did you get this fixed sorry to jump onto an old thread but mine is also clunking/rattling on shut down