Getting a heart transplant.....

[DrGonzo]

Here is rod bearing #3-4

#3


#4



Again all are smooth, no groves, no copper. Slight blackening on the top bearing. Most of the blackening wiped off with a towel. The lines you see on the bearing are just the difference between the mirror polished part of the bearing and the stock dull gray that the bearings come.

Wondering if the Clevite bearings are just not 100% smooth out of the box hence the lines that develop during wear. No lines whatsoever on the crank itself. it is a perfect mirror polish. At this point I have zero worries that this engine was susceptible to spinning a bearing. I'm almost 100% convinced that the higher metal numbers are due to the over-sized Clevite bearings wearing in on the turned crank.

Re-installing these bearings and pulling the last ones. Then maybe the cradle to check the mains.

[DrGonzo]

Here are bearings #5-6

#5


#6


So all of the rod bearings are fine. no major issues for me to worry about that I'm aware of

I won't have time to pull the cradle today to check the mains so I'll have to check it some other time. I see no reason the mains would have issues.

[wingnut]

I won't have time to pull the cradle today to check the mains so I'll have to check it some other time. I see no reason the mains would have issues.

Maybe not, but the mains are the ones that caused my issue...rods were fine!

[DrGonzo]

Really, I've only heard about about rod bearing spinning. I don't think I've ever heard of the main spinning, usually the rods go first as they take the worst beating.

[TurboSinceBirth]

Rods will spin if you have an oil starvation issue. The mains will spin from a bad tune which can included too much knock or timing advanced too far. It will hammer out the centers. That's what I've found. I never had a rod bearing spun. It was always the mains wearing down to copper or spinning.

For future reference this is an excellent place to look when you want to know what's going on with your bearings. They tell the story of what's going on with the engine.
MAHLE Clevite - Bearing Analysis - BETA v3

[DrGonzo]

Yeah, no tune on this motor as of yet. Ran it 100% stock and really no hard boost on it. Boost controller set to 12 psi. Did a couple pulls checking boost and such but the engine was not abused at all.

I checked a couple bearing analysis sites and none really showed the blackening like I had. Most that had any blackening also had grooves and lots of copper showing. Most of the blackening I had wiped right off with a paper towel so it's on the surface not embedded into the bearing material. Seeing as I did a lot of engine cranking when the ECU when out trying to figure things out, that also may have contributed to the black spots. I'm really attributing the black spots around the bearing oil hole to viscosity issues with the Valvoline oil I was using and the cranking that was done when I was trying to figure out the ECU issue. The crank looks perfect so there was no starvation of contact with the bearings. So far everything looks great. As soon as I get time to drop the cradle I'll know more as to if I have any main bearing issues but as of now I don't see that I'll have any issues.

[donniekak]

Those bearings show a couple problems. Uneven wear, and some contact with the crank on the upper shell. Either the crank journal is tapered, or the rod is twisted, or resized improperly.

In these engines, the rods wear and spin mostly from oil starvation. That starvation is caused in part by the mains wearing, and loosing pressure to feed the rods. By the looks of those bearings, I'm willing to bet the mains have some wear.

It takes a few minutes to pull the girdle, I'd take a look if I were you.

[DrGonzo]

Those bearings show a couple problems. Uneven wear, and some contact with the crank on the upper shell. Either the crank journal is tapered, or the rod is twisted, or resized improperly.

In these engines, the rods wear and spin mostly from oil starvation. That starvation is caused in part by the mains wearing, and loosing pressure to feed the rods. By the looks of those bearings, I'm willing to bet the mains have some wear.

It takes a few minutes to pull the girdle, I'd take a look if I were you.

There is no uneven wear on the bearings beyond the difference in the portion of the bearing that is polished and what is not polished. that difference is microscopic and seeing that the bearings only have 3k miles on them I wouldn't expect a full bearing surface polish since it is the oil that does the bearing polish not the crank.

Those are also not contact marks from the crank. It's a film where the oil got hot due to it being thin or a low viscosity. either it was caused cause the oil was too thin or from all the cranking I was doing working on the ECU issues over a couple weeks. the black film wipes right off. crank contact would have shown a bluish mark that won't wipe off.

Rods are stock and where not reworked in any way. they where checked for roundness and bore which were fine. Crank was turned and spec'd also which was .010 on the rods and .020 on the mains.

I will be pulling the crank girdle to check the mains. I may be able to do it in the next couple days depending on work.

[DrGonzo]

So... I got the cradle dropped at lunch. couple spots on the mains where crap was in the oil but I can barely hit is with my fingernail. Crank looks perfect, nice mirror shine so no crank damage.

Thrust bearings on the other hand.... yeah... So this is my first complete build and the one thing I did not do when I did the mains, thrust bearings, etc... was make sure the damn cradle was on straight and the thrust bearings where flush to one another on the seam. The cradle is very tight getting it in/out so I made the stupid assumption it lined up when I installed it.

So the oil analysis is right as the thrust bearings are really worn down, one of each side from the cradle not being installed straight. Luckily I see no damage to the crank so I should be able to drop a new set in and be good. The thrust bearings wore evenly on those two sides down to the copper. No indication of crank contact on either the crank of the thrust bearing. Looks like is was just off enough to cause excess wear on those two.













I couldn't get the #1 top main bearing out and didn't want to force it. Seeing as the top mains "the ones sitting next to each cradle bearing" looked good I wasn't too concerned with a visual inspection on it.

Seeing as there is nothing catastrophic with the mains I wonder if I can just drop them back in..... Opinions? I can't catch the grooves on the bearings with my nail which i was told in the past is a big factor in needing to replace them or not. IDK, not like they are expensive or anything, but why drop the cash if I don't have to. New thrust washers will be on order though.

[Jimvr4]

Greg, is this a four bolt? I didn't think it possible to misalign the cradle. How are you ensuring it is aligned?