spun bearing, car still ran fine hardly knocked :-)

[Bizzy]

So i'm in the middle well 1/3rd of the way done replaceing my rod bearings cause I thought I heard a slight knock.

Well low and behold, #2 from the FW was spun 1/4 the way around, and the bearing was all copper. The crank don't look too bad, little bearing matterial there "fused" to the crank, but I shaved it down with the first bearing that I removed cause it wasn't even hardly worn. All I can say it that I think that my AMSoil synthetic is the only thing that saved this from really doing some damage. Even though the bearing spun around a little, there is almost no damage to the crank. or to the rods either. If synthetics are bad for cams, then they are great for the lowerend cause the super slippery factor saved my crank.

I think I might just get some fine emery cloth or something tomorrow morning and polish that one up to make it really smooth. Is this something I should do? Cause I'm not about to junk my engine cause of this minor little detail, **** I had 11psi at hot idle even when the motore knocked a little at 4k rpm.

<small>[ August 20, 2003, 04:06 PM: Message edited by: netviper ]</small>

 

[luigisho]

Emery cloth is a good idea. You should check this gap with plastigage or something before you button it up to be sure you're within spec. IIRC the Clevite's are a little looser than the oem's from Ford. With some slight smoothing of the crank I'd be sure the gap is ok with the new bearing to save yourself a bigger headache later.

 

[Yamaha V6]

Changing to the super slippery synthetic after all those miles probably caused the spin. (ducks out the door waiting for the bombs to start flying).

 

[shojuan]

Yamaha V6:
Changing to the super slippery synthetic after all those miles probably caused the spin. (ducks out the door waiting for the bombs to start flying).

As opposed to running synthetic from day one? What, does the metal get used to the stuff that came from fermenting reptile guts? Do engines behave like drug addicts and suffer withdrawal in the worst way?

I have a feeling all we are going to hear about this is speculation and heresay. I'll begin with mine. My guess is that the extra stress from the spun bearing would have drank dino juice for a cocktail and sput out big chunks of crank. Regardless of what caused the spun bearing I think the synthetic **** did a good job of preventing a nasty cascading failure of parts by holding its own when the going got tough, lol!

<small>[ August 20, 2003, 01:48 AM: Message edited by: shojuan ]</small>

 

[Bizzy]

Ok so I just happened to have some emery cloth hanging around, and I polished up the one bad journal. Then cleaned it up really good. It was super smooth after that, so I'm not tooo worried. I just glomed it up with assembly grease, and smushed it back together.

I'm just wondering how long it's been like this, it's bee runnin synthetic since 70k and i'm comming up on 90k. I've heard a faint knock now and then for the last 6000 miles or so, but never thought that it was a spun bearing.

I have to believe that the added benifits of synthetics in reduced friction, and better able to deal with the heat had to play a BIG part in why this didn't fail bigtime. Some ppl remember how I was buzzing around the track at the convention at 7000rpm....

I think it'll be fine once its back together, just maybe run 5w-30 AMSoil rather than the 0W-30. I had 11psi hot with the 0w-30 but then again one piston wasn't getting oil or at least not the proper amounts

Me thinks i be building a 3.2 soon just for peace of mind. Me thinks its time have a crazy cheap AL SFB sale!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[SHOoff89]

Ok, so this bearing thing seems to be a real problem on the SHO's. I have some bottom end knock at cold start up, so is it likely I have spun a bearing, or are they just worn, and most important, can this be repaired by a skilled (not me) person?

 

[luigisho]

It's possible but not a certainty. If you have a good amount of miles it would be a good precautionary procedure. A semi-skilled person (you) could do this if you were so inclined. Remember, bearings are, by their nature, a high wear item and should be treated as such.

 

[sdpatt]

I'm not sure that your supposition that the Amsoil protected your bearing from damage can be supported by the evidence in hand. Invalid logic.

 

[shojuan]

sdpatt:
I'm not sure that your supposition that the Amsoil protected your bearing from damage can be supported by the evidence in hand. Invalid logic.

Well we DO know that the Amsoil didn't cause the bearing to demolish his crank! hehehe

 

[Bizzy]

sdpatt:
I'm not sure that your supposition that the Amsoil protected your bearing from damage can be supported by the evidence in hand. Invalid logic.

well I do not want to start a synthetic/dino war, cause Scott I really respect your viewpoint and the tons of technical info you've got/contributed. And..... My first fillup of oil on the new bearings is a nice 5qt bottle of Castrol GTX that was on sale at the Wally-Mart. I wanna add some AUTO-RX to this oil after about 300 miles and let it run for a 1000 or so and clean up any gunk that might be on the one spun bearing's rings from lack of oiling.

I know its just hearsay and there is no way to prove that the synthetic oil was waht saved me from a larger failure. But one has to admit that the advertized "benefits" of synthetics may have come into play here. I just doubt that dino juice would have done the same to keep the thing running as well as it has. I mean I was still getting 26-31mpg on the highway as recent as 2 days ago, even while knocking at 4000 RPM

 

[Bizzy]

shojuan:
Well we DO know that the Amsoil didn't cause the bearing to demolish his crank! hehehe D

very very true, hehe I think, but can't really proove it other than I there is no real major damage.

 

[Off Road SHO]

sdpatt:
I'm not sure that your supposition that the Amsoil protected your bearing from damage can be supported by the evidence in hand. Invalid logic.

HAHAHAHA, Scott, do you have pointy ears? You sound just like Spock on Star Trek.

 

[JoeHoe_SHO]

Castrol GTX for life baby

 

[Bizzy]

well I'm pretty sure that what did inthe bearing that spun was the previous owners driving habits. Lots of lugging the engine, and way long oil change intervals with crappy oil. In one respect I got a low mileage car, a 94 with 68k on it when I bougght it, in another respect that low miles didn't tell the whole story, 3 clutches, suburban OLD ppl driving style, and when on the test drive him telling me "oh you can put it in 5th at 30mph it's got plenty of power". I think all those things set up for me to spin the bearing cause I drive it like a SHO, and am not really gentle on it.

funny thing is though, that cylinder 3 from the flywheel had NO wear on the top bearing, whereas #1,#4,#5,#6 all had copper showing like what sdpatt's bearings had. To me it almost looks like cylinder 3 wasn't producing all the power it should have been cause it was dealing with the added heat or whatever from the cylinger next to it not having a good bearing.

I'll have pictures up later tonight I think.

 

[Shoman594]

For life!!!

 

[Bizzy]

Bahhh I'm putting AMSoil back in there in 2500 miles. I'll just run 5w-30 instead of 0w-30. But then again I dunno if I should even bother wasting the money, I'm already in the process of building a special tweaked 3.2 (well just getting a timetable and cost breakdown laid out, but I have a bunch of parts)

I doubt the Opal Frost is gonna see to much winter use anyway....that is if Kirk doesn't buy my soon to be winter beater out from under me!!!!!!

<small>[ August 20, 2003, 04:32 PM: Message edited by: netviper ]</small>

 

[sdpatt]

I didn't state anything about an oil type preference. All I said was that the conclusion could not be supported by the observed facts. Illogical.

 

[shojuan]

That's it. If he comes out to the 2004 convention I'm buying Spock a beer!

 

[SolidState]

I am running GTX 10w30 in the ATX, and Amsoil 10w30 in the MTX, and start ups are far better with the MTX. smooth as gravy...

 

[shojuan]

I just dumped my 12,000+ mile old Redline 10W/30 and put in Castrol GTX 10W/30 (for a rest phase between Auto-RX treatments. First treatment was started on my 11,000 mile old Redline 10W/30. The second treatment I'll do on Castrol GTX for economy and sanity's sake). I must admit that the 12,000 mile Redline oil has been continually freshened with 1 quart new oil additions every 1000 miles or so.

Anyways, usually my car is smoother after an oil change. A noticible difference. There was a noticible difference this time too. Except it was that the engine didn't feel as smooth on the Castrol as on the old Redline oil. Doesn't feel bad or anything, in fact the engine feels just fine. All this oil stuff probably doesn't matter too much anyways. Since I'm going to be building a 3.2 liter I should probably just stick to cheap stuff in my 3.0 from now on... But I'm pretty sure I'll end up putting Redline 10W/30 back in there. I might be reusing a lot of stuff off the 3.0 liter after all hahahahaha!