Bearing failure?

[Russell]

I pulled the motor the oil pan and rear main were leaking so I put it on the stand an desideed to look at the bearings. The motor is from a 98 explorer I ball honed it and put standard rings and bearings in it 15k miles / 6 years ago. It was my DD for a while, it has been to the dragstrip and the standing mile, and it had sat for extended amount of time. Wanted to know if there is anyway to tell what caused the bearings to fail so quickly? Was it not put together correctly? Was caused by abused? Was it neglected? Is this normal?

I am going to put new bearings in it, is it ok to just put them in or does it need to taken down to a bare block.

Rods



Main






Thrust



Rear main

[383gta]

Looks like you should tear it down and head to your local machine shop. Take the crank and have them check it for straightness and polish it if the journals aren't worn. Have them align hone the mains in the block. I would say the crank is bent or possibly broke. The blocks can shift over time so align honing will straighten the main bores back out. Putting new bearing in the way it is you will see a failure, probably a spun bearing in your future. I work at a machine shop and recon blocks and rods so I see it often. Good luck

[Russell]

Thanks for the advice, I am sure you are correct. How much does that cost? (Never enough money to do it right the frist, or second time, maybe the third?) I hate to spend money on a stock rebuilt with a 5.0 block. If I have to do all that I rather start with a 5.8 ot after market block. If I knew I could get another 5 years 15k miles out of another set of bearings I would be happy.

[383gta]

At our shop its $65 to check and polish the crank. Do all the main caps snap into the registers? When they get hot the caps will pull in on the sides and be loose in the registers. This will mess up your clearance and destroy bearings quickly. If they do still fit tight you can probably get away with just doing the crank.

[Scott Liggett]

Some of the bearings with vertical scratches look like some kind of abrasive got in there. Not sure about the cause of the bearing flaking.

[Russell]

The flaking is bad! The pit worry me, if it was just the scratches I would have buttoned it up....

[TheSilverBuick]

383gta sounds like he has the credentials to call this correctly.

I'd be curious as to what oil you are using, how often it's changed, and do you see excessive blow-by or is the engine running excessively rich (like a bad thermostat)?

[Huskinhano]

Go to the half price day at the local pick n pull for another short block may be cheaper.

[DanStokes]

PM sent.

Dan

[V12guy]

The pits are from it sitting with crappy oil. Not brand or viscosity, but "Crap" as there is water/moisture in it. The water mixes with the unburnt fuel in the oil and creates an acid. IIRC 'hydrofluoric' acid, and this eats into the soft metal of the shell. Quite possibly this is what caused the 'flaking' to happen, the physical bond was weakened.
Short trips (like my wife makes) when the engine does not gets up to temp really pulls the moisture into the engine oil.
If there is not any metal on the crank journals, I'd throw new bearings in it and run it. depends on how much time and money you want to spend on a 98 exploder.....

[Russell]

V12guy, i got it from a junk yard, came out of a 98 explorer. I was hoping to just do a cam swap and put it in my 89 mustang. That was getting long in the tooth. The explorer motor makes 25 +/- more hp than the HO. The bearing were showing copper so we pulled it apart and put new rings and bearing in. I am now parting out the 89 to put in a 87 mustang.

Dan has made me an offer to good to refuse. I am ready to get back on the road and the track.

[Scott Liggett]

I asked our tech guys at work about the flaking bearings. They say it can be caused by the bearing moving around from too much clearance or bearing loose.

[anotheridiot]

I thought flaking was more about heat since the bearing babbit is delaminating from the steel backing. It could just be a poor bearing. The second picture main that shows almost no scoring showed there was alot of clearance in that main.

[Huskinhano]

Good opportunity to build a 347

[Russell]

Good opportunity to build a 347

Are you going to send me your check book or credit card?

Dan is hooking me up with a volvo engine I will put the P back together and stick it in the corner, might try to build it later or maybe just use the top end if it checks out. I am ready to get back on the road / track so I am going with the least cost & time option thanks Dan!