New "oem shortblock" probable spun bearing with less then 10 miles on the motor :/

I bought a project car from a member on w3si. He said it had a new oem shortblock. Cool I'm thinking, so I finish putting the FMIC on it and fire it up. I go to drive it down the block a few times, everything is sounding great, check the oil, coolant. Everything looks good. So I decide to drive down the road a bit further and keep in mind this whole time I never went over 3500 rpm and I was running wastegate boost. I was also logging for knock.

I go down the road about 3 miles and turn around. On the way back I'm going about 45. Zero knock the whole time, just cruising at 2k rpm, and I notice the oil pressure is extremely low, next thing I know i start hearing a knocking noise so I drop it down to an idle and coast home.

UPDATE:
Looked at all the bearings and all of them are good. In fact they look new, which I would expect with only 40 miles on the motor. I'm thinking it could have been a lifter so I'll be looking into that this weekend.

That sucks :(

If it's a new OEM wouldn't there be some sort of warranty on it?

are you sure it was a brand new or re-ground crank? it sounds like just the the bearings have just been replaced after a preveous spun bearing.


Tony

"He said it had a new OEM shortblock." But he lost the receipt, huh? Damm, sorry to hear this! Good luck with the rebuild Does it look like a new block??

why did he put a new block in? Could of he spun another bearing, bought the block, and then didnt clean things enough to cause old material to mess up the new one?


Coop

Did you buy that from Nick?

If he had a spun bearing before, a new shortblock is only ONE of the many things you would need. To be completely safe, you would need new oil feeds/returns, oil cooler, oil filter, have valves cleaned, have crank checked for scores, and other stuff.

It also depends on what bearings went out.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mikeyVR4

If he had a spun bearing before, a new shortblock is only ONE of the many things you would need. To be completely safe, you would need new oil feeds/returns, oil cooler, oil filter, have valves cleaned, have crank checked for scores, and other stuff.

It also depends on what bearings went out.

---

This. If it spun a bearing before and he only replaced the engine without properly flushing or replacing the oil cooler and oil feed lines then there was probably garbage in the system and it cycled back through causing your current issues.

You guys are worrying me about my new shortblock now... I had my heads cleaned so far and i cleaned my oil cooler lines, i also have a new oil cooler going on. Still you guys are getting me worried...

Well how about this, if everything goes ok with the engine then you can just give me the GN. :D

That old thing, you can have it :D

I'll drive down this weekend to pick it up. :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by stealthee

Well how about this, if everything goes ok with the engine then you can just give me the GN. :D

---

Man I would love to have that Grand National

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...N/DSC_1067.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...N/DSC_1066.jpg

I don't know how anyone can claim those cars are ugy. They were the 80's muscle car.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by stealthee

I don't know how anyone can claim those cars are ugy. They were the 80's muscle car.

---

Yeah I agree, that is a beautiful car that does damage! Unfortunately, Stealthee will beat me to Georgia lol.

If I show up dressed as Il Duce, I wonder if he really would give me the car? :p

I wonder if they guy who sold the car new something was up with this engine?

He may have, he may not have. My brother sold a 4 cylinder Jeep Cherokee that he never had an issue with engine wise, and the kid he sold it to blew the engine on his drive home after signing the title over.

He accused my brother of outright lying and all this other shit but had no proof. I made sure a bill of sale was signed and notarized stating it was bought as is in case anything did happen. Good thing I look out for my little bro eh?

And that's saying alot...an 80's muscle car. How many of those existed? +1 on the love for the GN.

I really love the GN myself, great great engine. I wish i could put that v6 into a 3S. Anyways i have it at a shop in NC right now getting some work done. Little tuning, new springs and shocks, new cam, new head gaskets, new front end bushing and whatnot... Bunch of stuff i didnt have time to do thanks to the stealth :(

Anyways here is one of the shops cars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khf958EX4Tw

NOt sure if I am digging the red on it. Black just fits the car so much better.

Enought about GN's lol the thread starter is gonna be pissed when he gets back to all this :D

Selling a car is risky business unless you cover your ass. When I sold my 93 SL, I made sure that we did everything at my bank and we had the title notarized and wrote up a bill of sale. The car didn't break down or anything but I wanted to cover my but and make sure that we both signed that the car is his responsibility and is solely his car now. They wrote a check to my bank and my bank instantly deposited the funds. I never touched the check and that is how I like it to be. I got everything down right then and there and we walked our separate ways.

Haha thread de-railers! Jk.

Anyways an update. I was concerned about buying this car with the "new oem shortblock" because I asked him what else he did to it. He told me he cleaned the heads himself and the oil cooler. I asked him if the heads were disassembled and he said he just took the valve covers off and sprayed them down with carb cleaner. He said he had only run the motor for 10-20 minutes so I went ahead and dumped the oil and it looked ok, so I put a new filter and oil in it. Finished the intercooler piping, put the axles, clutch slave cylinder etc in, drove it for 10 minutes, checked the oil again, still looked clean. 45 minutes of driving it and then this happened.

So today I brought it in and drained the oil and it definitely had a shiney metallic glint to it. I took the bearing girdle off and all the bearings looked ok so I'm not really sure where the metal is from, it almost sounded like it was coming from up top and it wasn't clanking it was more of a whirring noise, I will have to investigate further.

No more cam bearings lol ;)

Oh and just a disclaimer, this is not the VR4 in my sig that I'm trying to sell. Its a Black 92 VR4. And I dont remember who asked it, but yes it was from a guy on w3si that sold it to me. He moved to california the day after I bought it from him.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...-16-31_952.jpg

My engine as of 5mins ago, wish me luck guys...

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. Mine was perfectly fine for 30-40 minutes of driving. It was after that that the damage must have gotten worse. At least there werre no big metal chunks so maybe it didnt do too much damage. Regardless I would never rebuild a motor without using a new oil cooler, and completely dis-assembling the heads to clean them.

Stupid question - you said you took the girdle off but didn't mention anything about rod caps? And our cams really don't have bearings...

Good question. I read it kind of fast and didn't notice that.

SHIT i forgot to put in my cam bearings...

JK :D ... Anyways yeah look at the rod bearings and report back...

Here is what mine looked like according to the guy...Attachment 406

I didnt get all of them off, I ran out of time, but the rod bearings I did take off looked good. And for the cams not having a bearing, I meant to say a cap or whatever that holds them in. But until I take the valve covers off and finish checking the rest of the rod bearings I wont know anything more :/

Yeah that's pretty much what my shortblock looked like, except cleaner...

now im worried about mine too, i have a new engine on the stand ready to go in, fully forged and rebuilt heads and what not... i think i might install a brand new oil cooler too... whew....

My problem is i bought new stainless lines and a 25 row oil cooler to go with it. Problem is i cannot get the 25 row to fit. My FMIC piping makes the space to tight... Anybody know the cheapest place to get a new stock replacement cooler?

I have another OEM one that came from a stealth TT car I parted out. Had 87k miles on it. No spun bearing or anything. PM me if interested.

good possibility the lifters are full of metal and that is what you are seeing in the pan.

Ah icic. Yeah I'll have to check that out. I haven't worked on it since last weekend. This weekend we are installing a 9k lb 2 post car lift at my shop so I probably wont get to work on the vr4 at all unless I get lucky.

Update:

Took a look at the rod bearings and they look fine, so there are no spun bearings in the motor. I'm starting to wonder if it was a bad lifter that was making noise because the bottom end is solid looking. I'll hopefully get to work on it more this weekend so I'll know more then

Good news!

Eric