spun a bearing, I'm blaming Ford... please read why.

[strings1732]

So, a few months ago, I spun another bearing. The motor siezed. I figured it had siezed because I drove it home with the spun bearing(about a 1/2 mile to 3/4 of a mile distance). So, I finally got into the motor and I figured out what had happened. There are 2 studs that hold the oil pump pickup tube to the oil pump. The 2 nuts that hold it up came off. They backed out from vibration or something. The funniest thing about this is that I never touched these nuts. This means that ford, did not tighten these to the proper specification, or that the proper specification was not enough. So it may be a good idea, to loosen the oil pan and put some loc-tite on these nuts so this doesn't happen to any one else.


Oh and just to let you know, I fully spun 3 rod bearings, possibly more had started. I fully spun one main bearing and 2 more mains had started to spin for sure. I even started to spin a thrust bearing. It has a slight scratch on one side of it, from where the main bearing spun and scratched it. I hope that this never happens to any of you.


I know driving on it didn't help, but that's ok. This has given me an excuse to take the car where I want it to be. The motor is going to the machine shop tomorrow(hopefully). It is getting everything re-done, including a 50% overbalance, new-ish rods/pistons/crank, a line bore, resizing of the rods and possibly a flash grind as well, new rings and all new bearings. I just have to find some thrust bearings now...(good luck on that one, I know). When I'm done, the motor will be new-ish and painted, it will be turboed, it'll have new exhaust, be A/C delete and hopefully lose quite a bit of weight from other things as well. When I'm done, this will be a new car for me.

 

[SHOtime2511]

maybe someone else touch the bolts in question before you?

 

[SASHO91]

So was the oil pickup tube off? IIRC, that gasket is pretty strong.

The only way i see how you could have spun a bearing if the tube came off an stopped delievering oil to the pump... and well its just a chain reaction from there on out... I would check the oil pump as well.

 

[yamahaSHO]

No one has touched the nuts but ford. They were torqued from the factory and have never been removed. The motor has about 90,000 miles on it. Everything on the lower end is factory.

Saleen SHO, That's exactly what happened. The two nuts that hold the pickup tube loosened up, and fell off. When those two nuts came off, the pickup tube was no longer connected to the oil pump, and no oil was getting pumped into the crank. It was still resting up against the pump, but it wasn't tight enough to hold oil pressure. It kind of blew out the seal... I've got a spare oil pump ready to go in it if the current one is bad. The spare pump has a lot of miles on it, but if the current one is bad, then I don't have a choice. I'm having the machine shop check everything over before the motor gets built anyway. If there is even the slightest possibility that something might go bad even remotely soon, I'll be replacing it.

The only thing that isn't getting re-done or replaced, is the heads, intake and accessories. The heads were just fully rebuilt about 6,000 miles ago. They were even milled down slightly(resurfaced). The intake was also just ported and polished as well. I'm going to eventually finish my other intake with a new port and polish job, a paint job and BBB's. The accessories were all just replaced except for the power steering pump, which just went out on me about 2,500 miles ago, so that's getting replaced as well. Alt. is in great shape still. As, I said before, it'll be a pretty new car when I'm done. With an intercooled turbo setup as well.

 

[strings1732]

No one has touched the nuts but ford. They were torqued from the factory and have never been removed. The motor has about 90,000 miles on it. Everything on the lower end is factory.

Saleen SHO, That's exactly what happened. The two nuts that hold the pickup tube loosened up, and fell off. When those two nuts came off, the pickup tube was no longer connected to the oil pump, and no oil was getting pumped into the crank. It was still resting up against the pump, but it wasn't tight enough to hold oil pressure. It kind of blew out the seal... I've got a spare oil pump ready to go in it if the current one is bad. The spare pump has a lot of miles on it, but if the current one is bad, then I don't have a choice. I'm having the machine shop check everything over before the motor gets built anyway. If there is even the slightest possibility that something might go bad even remotely soon, I'll be replacing it.

The only thing that isn't getting re-done or replaced, is the heads, intake and accessories. The heads were just fully rebuilt about 6,000 miles ago. They were even milled down slightly(resurfaced). The intake was also just ported and polished as well. I'm going to eventually finish my other intake with a new port and polish job, a paint job and BBB's. The accessories were all just replaced except for the power steering pump, which just went out on me about 2,500 miles ago, so that's getting replaced as well. Alt. is in great shape still. As, I said before, it'll be a pretty new car when I'm done. With an intercooled turbo setup as well.

 

[smak]

didnt yamaha ship the engines complete and assembled?

 

[twr]

didnt yamaha ship the engines complete and assembled?

Correct, the engines shipped complete from Yahama, even had the wiring harness already installed. Can't say I have ever heard of a failure like this occuring before. Are you sure the Garden Gnomes didn't loosen the nuts for you

BTW strings, did you see the new dyno numbers for the Outlaw?

 

[Off Road SHO]

maybe someone else touch the bolts in question before you?

My guess also. But hey, if you need to blame somebody, it's always wise to blame someone who can't come over to your house and poke you in the eye.

Tom

 

[sho_sc]

So, a few months ago, I spun another bearing. The motor siezed. I figured it had siezed because I drove it home with the spun bearing(about a 1/2 mile to 3/4 of a mile distance). So, I finally got into the motor and I figured out what had happened. There are 2 studs that hold the oil pump pickup tube to the oil pump. The 2 nuts that hold it up came off. They backed out from vibration or something. The funniest thing about this is that I never touched these nuts. This means that ford, did not tighten these to the proper specification, or that the proper specification was not enough. So it may be a good idea, to loosen the oil pan and put some loc-tite on these nuts so this doesn't happen to any one else.


Oh and just to let you know, I fully spun 3 rod bearings, possibly more had started. I fully spun one main bearing and 2 more mains had started to spin for sure. I even started to spin a thrust bearing. It has a slight scratch on one side of it, from where the main bearing spun and scratched it. I hope that this never happens to any of you.


I know driving on it didn't help, but that's ok. This has given me an excuse to take the car where I want it to be. The motor is going to the machine shop tomorrow(hopefully). It is getting everything re-done, including a 50% overbalance, new-ish rods/pistons/crank, a line bore, resizing of the rods and possibly a flash grind as well, new rings and all new bearings. I just have to find some thrust bearings now...(good luck on that one, I know). When I'm done, the motor will be new-ish and painted, it will be turboed, it'll have new exhaust, be A/C delete and hopefully lose quite a bit of weight from other things as well. When I'm done, this will be a new car for me.

?? Maybe I just read it wrong, but how do you change rod bearings without removing the oil pickup tube?

 

[SASHO91]

oh yeah...
you said you spun another bearing.. do you mean in general or was this the same motor? If so, that tube had to come off....

 

[yamahaSHO]

This motor was pulled from the junk yard from a car with about 80k. The rod bearing were not replaced, however, the car was in the junk yard due to a blown head gasket. That woudn't explain the nuts backing of, but someone else may have been there.

I'll just tell you what I told you when you bought the motor, check everything over and replace all the wear parts (less piston rings).

 

[strings1732]

yes, I've seen the new numbers Terry! Congrats!

I highly doubt anyone ever got in there and did anything to the motor, but as jason said, I should have checked it over before I put it in. Problem was is that my funding would have been cut if I did... It's a long story.

 

[NotSoSlowSHO]

even longer story now.

 

[revhardSHO]

So the bottom end was totally untouched? Stock rod bearings? and the pickup tube just came loose? Must have been opened up before, thats all I can think. Chances are if the bearings are aftermarket they will be clevite and you should be able to idenfiy the make on the bearing. Check them out.

 

[SHOtimer]

The main problem with your assertion is that you got this motor from a j/yard car! Who knows how it's previous life was - it was found with a blown head gasket - which you have to really work to do to these motors. You can't blame Ford for a problem on a ~13 year old motor sitting in a j yard.

Doug

 

[strings1732]

The main problem with your assertion is that you got this motor from a j/yard car! Who knows how it's previous life was - it was found with a blown head gasket - which you have to really work to do to these motors. You can't blame Ford for a problem on a ~13 year old motor sitting in a j yard.

Doug

So your telling me ford has never done anything wrong?

 

[strings1732]

even longer story now.

Don't worry, my funder is paying for this now since it was he who wouldn't let me do it before...

oh yeah...
you said you spun another bearing.. do you mean in general or was this the same motor? If so, that tube had to come off....

no previous motor

 

[Rockledge]

You can't blame Ford for a problem on a ~13 year old motor sitting in a j yard.

As noted above, you can't blame Ford, regardless. If a mistake was made, it was a Yamaha corporation employee who made it.

I'm also in the "bolts-were-removed-previously" camp.

.

 

[SHOtimer]

So your telling me ford has never done anything wrong?

I never said that. But, this would be like blaming a clothing manufacturer for a tear in an old shirt you found at the good will. If the SHO was 1-2 years old...with just a few thousand on it - sure. However, you don't know beyond a shadow of a doubt that those bolts have never been messed with. That is just an assumption.

Doug

 

[Sho-N-Go]

How does a motor go 90,000 miles before the nuts come loose? How do you manage to spin a thrust bearing? They are grooved into the main cap. How does a motor run on 4 spun bearings? All these are good questions. I vote for someone has been there before. Why did you even by a motor with a blown headgasket?