QuestionQUESTION: Will know after tomorrow for sure, but here's where we are. I had read of other instances of the spark (and it is a big one, like an ignition spark) was coming from the area of the harmonic balancer, which didn't make sense on many levels. Upon further investigation and subject to testing tomorrow, we believe the sparking is coming from the coil packs, and - the clicking noise it produce being ignored for years - actually burned a hole through one of the pistons (hence big time compression loss) and is travelling through the crank and manifesting itself on the harmonic balancer. In other words, when you actually see the spark, it appears to be coming from the harmonic balancer, but that is actually only the destination. Crazy, but appears to be what happened.
HT, I will update with our findings tomorrow
ANSWER: Even if the piston were blown through, this should not make it possible for the sparks to come out near the crank pulley. You should be looking for a moving component rubbing on another component in the vicinity of the crank pulley. If the sparks are originating from behind the pulley, you may need to remove the crank pulley and timing covers to locate the problem.
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Well, the coil experiment didn't work. I understand what you're saying, but the spark is a BIG spark, like an ignition spark. It seems bigger that what I would expect to see from 2 components just rubbing together. What do you think?
AnswerI think you'd never see an ignition spark that far away from the ignition components-- it'd find a path to the engine metal long before it reached that part of the engine (unless you've got a plug wire somehow down in that area). Think about it-- your hypothesis is basically that you have a two foot long spark (at least). Even if it were possible that there were no other place for the spark to land prior to that point, there's no way that the ignition coil could put out a two foot long spark.
