Nope not my car...
A friend of mine bought a 94 SSE for $150. The guy he bought it from said the engine was blown. I went out to his house today and we got a battery hooked up to it and turned it over, and it stared right up. But there is a weird "clanking" noise. Its not a steady noise it happens intermittently, but "steady" if that makes any sense at all. :P
It runs but it doesn't sound healthy.

Is that something you guys have run into before? Is it blown or is it something that could be fixed.

We checked the valve springs, because his dad said it sounded like it was a busted valve spring, but they are all fine. His dad (a mechanic at a Pontiac GMC dealer) said it sounded like some balancing rod or something (can't remember the exact words he called it.)

Can you post a vid clip of it?

Does the sound stop if you rev the motor a bit, or remove/loosen the serpentine belt? If so, it'* likely the harmonic balancer.

I can try, but I don't know the next time I'm going to be able to get out to his house... But if I do i will get a vid clip of it.

actually for some reason the serpentine belt was off when we started it. So the noise happens w/ out the belt.

Just a guess but maybe a busted connecting rod or bad rod bearings, causing the piston arms to slop on the crank.

If you can't find the noise soon, jack the car crawl under and listen near the oil pan if its loud, then I would drop the pan and have a look.

Just a guess,
Dutch

Sound anything like this? That'* my old L67 which spun a rod bearing but despite the motor difference a knock is a knock.

Ed

The HB is on the crank and turns when there is no belt. Have you buddy look at it.

Yeah, i was going to suggest HB. It'* fairly common for them to deteriorate with age and sound similar to knocking...

Well thanks for the help guys... but after trying to work on it a little he started it up again, and we heard a loud clunk and lots of smoke, and looked under neath and found pieces to a piston rod laying on the ground so, yea its blown.

That'* too bad. I was hoping it was the harmonic balancer. It would have been an amazing deal for $150!