[buffhomer]

What would you do? Hurt Motor **Pix of Damage**

Friday night driving the car around and I was coasting up to a stop sign, heard a noise like a belt squeal. I was damn sure it was a belt squeal but by instinct I looked at the oil pressure, ~50psi, plenty of fuel pressure so all good there. At the stop sign there was an intermittent squeak/squeal and I rolled out and down the road a bit till the squeal (still intermittent) lead to one slight tap.

Pulled over and popped the hood, there was a light, very intermittent tap coming from what seemed like the top end of the motor, decided to baby it back to the shop, during which I had no problems and no noise. Got to the stop and let the car idle for a few minutes with no noises whatsoever. Hm. next morning I idled the car for a bit and the tap had turned to a bit louder intermittent rattle which shook the engine, still sounding like it was coming from the top end of the engine. The exhaust sounded a bit too "poppy" as well, or at least so it seemed. The rattle very much reminded me of when a cylinder is misfiring and it throws the engine off a bit. Also with the slightly different exhaust it was making me think possibly a rocker had worked itself loose and there really was a cylinder not working right.

Yanked all the plugs, all was well. Pulled the valvecovers and all the rockers are fine. No debris in the valvetrain area, all seemed fine. Went ahead and rinsed the valvetrain with cleaner and drained the oil, front sump didn't show anything, rear sump however has a magnetic plug and I found this:

http://img135.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img0978wn7.jpg

Ran a magnet through the oil I had drained, no debris. Poured the oil out of the filter over a magnet, no debris. Have yet to cut open the filter but I'm not sure if I'll get anything.

I have only put about 600mi on the car, had regular Valvoline oil in it for the time being. Was going to swap out for good synthetic at about the 1000mi mark.

What to do? Tear it down and go looking? Throw it back together with some good oil and see what happens? My thinking, if it's hurt I have to tear it down. If I hurt it more I have to tear it down. Blah!

Forgot to mention, was just cruising when it happened, hadn't dipped in the throttle at all. Car had been parked for a couple weeks as I was waiting on suspension parts and there was nothing wrong when I parked it.

 

[buffhomer]

No, some Albuquerque Automotive Machine or something. Came out of a car I bought.

I know it's likely bearings.

 

[buffhomer]

Is it possible that there was metal debri from the machining and that is what you are seeing in the rear sump?

Of course I would probably start tearing things down as well.

Good luck.

I had the engine out when I first put the car together, drained all the oil and the plug was perfect when I put it back so this is my doing somehow. Just wondering how severe.

I'm basically not wanting to have to tear the bitch down, it gets after it for how simple it is!

 

[buffhomer]

Well Taylorkdt has a spare shortblock as well and I wouldn't be so hesitant to just run the bitch except that yeah, my block is just a regular 5 liter block, but the rotating assembly is an all forged Scat/Probe stroker setup. I'd hate to have a bad bearing and hurt that nice SCAT crank.

Goddammit.

 

[buffhomer]

So tonight I said to heck with it, I put in some 50 weight race oil and threw the top end back together, then babied it up the street and back.

On startup there was a small squeak (which made it 100% obvious to me that it's a bearing) and then everything was quiet, during the drive it ran fine, idling in the shop before and after the drive it seemed Ok.

Seems to be the going advice though is to tear it down. Blah.

 

[buffhomer]

I know, and I always run Mobil 1, even in my nitrous engines. This is the only time I've ever had regular oil in for any length of time more than say, 200 miles.

Goddamn blowers!

 

[buffhomer]

So I went ahead and buttoned it back up with the heavier oil and drove it several miles, no noises or anything and it seemed to run fine. Didn't get on it real hard, just a little roll-on in 2nd and 3rd, only made about 5psi.

Still, I'm gonna go ahead and park it and start tearing it down and see what's up. No sense risking the good parts.

 

[buffhomer]

Motor out, got the pan off, here is the main culprit. My dad was right and I was partially right. All you car guys were dead wrong!!

Still need to tear apart the bottom end and check the bearings though, ya'll still could get in your 2 cents before it's all over.



You can see in the second pic that the 3 pieces are the roller itself, it had been ground flat before it just broke into pieces. Don't bitch about the pic quality, cameraphone.

 

[buffhomer]

Well, still gotta see about the bearings and everything else. At a minimum, new cam and lifters, possibly a pushrod or two, likely the oil pump as well.

Probably gonna get a new clutch, the King Cobra the car has is a raging pile of shit. Insane hot spots all over the pressure plate and flywheel.

 

[buffhomer]

Better shot, the lifter got trash into the lifters next to it and they were starting to go, it severely jacked the cam too.



Also pulled the other head on the good side, lo and behold, this woulda been a problem too!



There was indeed one bad bearing, the #3 main. Also found that the timing chain is pretty stretched, the intake gaskets were blocking the ports a bit, and a few other things. Have a list of parts I'm gonna get ordered up tomorrow.

 

[buffhomer]

No I didn't, that's the only part of the car I didn't do myself.