oil pressure LOST, and then 24 hours later BACK

[Pete Munroe]

All,

Got three rod caps off, none of the bearings were anything more than moderately worn...nothing into the copper or remotely near breaking up.

Wear across the face of all three bearings was not as uniform as I would think they should be (original grind on the crank not so great? ). but the crank journal didn't feel grooved ( I did have rubber gloves on).

No evidence of bluing from heat on rod or main caps. Will try to post photos after I get all the caps off.

The crank end-play was 0.006...didn't seem excessive but I do not know...the thrust bearing edges are not showing (assuming they would) and I can ONLY think of the thrust bearings breaking up as dumping enough crap into the pan to match what I have found.

Couldn't get to the mains as the support was in the way. Need to get another wrench.

[RICK LAKE]

Pete Munroe Pete is the distributor and camshaft gear OK? That's some big chunks in the bottom of the pan. Rods 6,7,8 would be the ones with bearing damage because they are the last to get oil in this motor. I hoping for distributor gear and camshaft. The other thing is pulling the inspection cover off this oil pump and check the gear faces and clearance of rotors to body. .006" is within spec for crankshaft end play if this is total in both directions. .010" is about the max. I know of 2 cases where the gears in the oil pump slip on the shafts when the motor oil was hot. When cooled off they tighten back up and worked like normal. Just a thought. Rick L. Ps crank shaft hardness should be better than the bearings hardness unless they are tri metals.

[Pete Munroe]

All,

Finally got the main caps off.

Bearing #2 is fried...blackened, delaminating, slight bluing on the main cap edges.

Bearing #3 is seriously worn, but never broke up...seemed reasonable the side of the bearing had broken off and fallen to the bottom of the pan...but they didn't. The front and rear sides are worn down to the copper, the flat surface is scored into the copper at one edge.

Bearings #1 and #4 are moderately scored.

#5 is still in place, will put #1 back on and replace the pan to remove the engine and protect the lower end.

In the next day or so I'll put up a few photos of the #2 main and the #3.

Rod bearings are quite worn and not pretty.

At this point, I am thinking the crank will need to be turned, wondering if the main cap that is lightly blued will result in a need to be line-honed or bored.

Hope to get the engine on the stand in the next week or two.

The uneven wear on different bearings makes me wonder if the crank was ground properly to begin with.

Hope not too many more surprises...will follow up here as I try to figure out why main bearing #2 went south...

thanks, Pete