Noticed low oil pressure and cut open the oil filter and saw a lot of bearing material so decided to pull the engine sooner rather than later. Roughly 3500 miles on it...granted those are hard miles Engine was still running great! No odd sounds, no vibrations, still making great power, no smoke, no oil consumption. Just low oil pressure and bearing material.

Anyway, on to the pics...

Just put in new plugs as well...if you notice 2 timing marks, I pulled 2 degrees out before the last time I ran it. Most timing was around 17 degrees.



Top end looked great to me. Zero evidence of detonation.






Cylinder walls look good...



Then the party starts...

 

Rod bearings, cyl1 on the left.


Main bearings, 1 on the left.

I think we found a winner!

Here is number 2....this doesnt quite seem normal...


Main journal 1,


Journal 2,


Journal 3,


Journal 4,


Journal 5,


Looking at cylinder 7, notice the bearing material hanging out...


Block journal 1,




I havent pulled the cam yet, because frankly im not sure how to pull out the cam bearings out besides with a screwdriver. The cam lobes look fine though.

 

Yep, that'll do it! How much lower was your oil pressure than normal?

 

damn , now Im freaked out !

 

Normal was around 60ish, with 80+ at WOT....noticed the gauge sitting around 40cold, then dropping to 30 hot with barely any increase with rpm.

 

What do you think caused it?

 

all can think of is .... but i bow i wudnt have the clue what causes that .. enlighten me did the pressure drop cause the damage or the damage cause the pressure to drop? excuse the idiocy i havent the clue...

 

What were your bearing clearances set to and what weight oil were you using?

 

I suspect the crank is bent...havent checked it yet, but this is the second engine this crank has been in that has exhibited the exact same thing. Only things reused were the crank and rods...

Here are the mains from the 408 this crank was in first...

 

Thats simple enough to check, throw it on a lathe and check run-out.