Newbie here, name is Mike.

I need help with my daughter's '97 2.2l cavalier. The head gasket went on it and it overheated. I replaced the head gasket and put a remanufactured head on it.

Started her up, runs and doesn't die and no leaks but major knocking noise. I am really hoping I just need to adjust the rocker arms but wanted to ask the jbody guru's first. I'm hoping there isn't a bigger issue in the lower end like a bent rod or worse.

I torqued the arms to 22ft lbs as in the chiltons manual, do I still need to adjust the rocker arms?

One more question, can you replace the lifters without removing the head? I know enough to be dangerous when working on 4 cylinder cars, making sure I don't screw things up by asking here first. My experience is in V8's.

Thanks bunches jbody guru's!

I just noticed I jumpd in here too quickly, newbie mistake. This should be in the newbie section I guess. My bad.

did your coolant leak into the crank case? could have smoked your main bearings.

p.s. check ot make sure u didnt right the wires off your knock sensor some how.

damn i got to check before i get entre also are you sure you have the fireing order of your engine correct and the timing is ok?

I marked all vacuum hoses, sparkplugs wires, prior to head removal so I'm confident timing is right.

Crankcase smells like it got hot but I don't see any coolant in crancase nor does it smell like coolant.

I'll check the knock sensor, didn't think of that one. I'll also double check the rocker arms.

Do you have to remove the head to replace the lifters?

Thanks Jeff.

You should be able to determine if you need to take the head off by thunbing through Chilton's (GREAT help for engine work, btw). Did you fix the guide pins in the block before you put the new gasket/head on? Guide pins are the key to the gasket going. The open part of them MUST face away from all coolant passages. On mine, the one by #1 cylinder was fine, the one by #4 cylinder was facing a coolant passage. Easy enough to rotate it to face the outside of the block. A factory assembly flaw, GM should cover all rebuilds -- but they don't.