So I was driving my S at like 45 and started hearing a buzz, soon after i hear a knock and the engine dies. I go off to the side and try and start the car again and it does, but when i attempt to give it gas to move to the gas station it just dies. It sounds like its in the head, and i suspect that it was the valve retainers, but theres no CEL. and im stumped. Im planning on taking the head off tomorrow. And I pray its not too bad. sigh

 

Can you give any more detail? How low was the oil level when this occurred? How many miles on the engine? You heard a "buzz" followed by a single "knock" and then it just shut off? What makes you think the issue is valve retainers?

 

Retainers, even bad ones, dont make noise.

check your oil. check both sides of the stick...post what you see and we can help.

 

The oil was low, so I added more and after that I rode off and it happened. 156xxx. It wasn't a single knock. It was sequential knocking. I think it might be a valve hitting a piston but I don't know.

 

How low?

If it was low enough, you spun a bearing. Spun bearings will make a few loud knocks at cold morning startup, then go quiet, then come back as the engine warms.

 

I would pull the oil pan to check for a spun bearing before going through the labor of removing the head. If you were running low on oil, a spun bearing is quite likely as Bill mentioned.

 

Well would the knocking from the spun bearing only make a sound up at the head?

 

I had a similiar noise. I thought it was in the head. I looked at retainers, scored cams, missing lma's, and nothing. Pulled the oil pan and no flakes. There was a little bit of play in the #4 rod on the crank. I replaced the rod bearing with a bigger bearing and the noise remained. Compression was fine too 215 all across. I pulled the motor apart and found the #4 cylinder was scored pretty bad near the top of the cylinder.

 

Pull off the oil filter and cut it open with an oil filter cutting tool that you can get from racing suppliers. If there is metal in it you will have bore/bearing damage.