Ouch! That's brutal. Was it getting no oil at all? Or did something get in there?

 

Right beside your image of the bearing was an ad/vid of bouncing *****, and I had to pull my attention away to look at your bearing, although it's a good looking bearing.

Man, that hurts. Was the crank polished? I've been in your shoes. I know how it feels. Did you use ARP rod bolts? Was the big end checked after torqing to spec? Were the rods reconditioned?

I was a recipient of a bad, brand new t.gear set, to address Harte3's post back aways. It came in a rebuild kit from Summit. It was fine for first 40 miles, then after cool down it made noise and had to be replaced. If anyone is shopping for a kit, I'd say to buy the t.gears from comp or Cloyes, not the high quality cheap Chinese crap that comes in the kits.

BVA: I hope it all works out.

 

Well, I paid to have all that done in addition to crank regrind and balancing all the way around. Hopefully someone with a little more forensic experience with rod bearings can chime in. I'm going to reuse the rods since they've got the ARP bolts and will definitely have the shop check them before pressing on new pistons.

 

You prob. know this, but I recently learned that b/c ARP bolts apply more torque than oem rod bolts, they have to be torques to spec b/f install and rechecked for roundness while torqued. Be sure you polish that crank. Or, if it needs to be turned down to remove all the scratches, make sure it is polished afterward.

 

It seems like I remember the shop mentioning getting the bolts before resizing the rods but it's been a while. If I had to guess they were in a hurry reassembling the short block for the second time (at no charge) and got sloppy. I used an oil can to dribble oil around all the rod journals and primed the oil system for a good 10 minutes.

I'm going to use a different crank, the one that was in the original engine I pulled out of the Bronco.

 

Are they oem size bearings? turn them over. Were the rods oem size, .010 over? Are the bearings correctly sized?

 

Did you, by chance, ever lay the crank on its side for an extended period of time? I'm wondering if it deformed and crank throw wasn't centerlined.

 

Never mind. That's on the rod.

 

Take that crank in and have it balanced and polished.
Get your rods checked for ARP bolts, torqued together and tested for roundness.

 

The bearings are marked .020. I just dropped the rods, pistons, and cam at the shop. He looked at the bearing and said either the rod or the crank wasn't sized right, then asked if they resized after changing the bolts. HellifIknow. He's going to check them out. I said if they're at all iffy just swap the bolts to the others and use them.

The threads in the snout on the bad crank are junk to boot so I was going to use the other one anyway.

I'm having him check the head too just to ensure the high-heat lean break-in run didn't crack it. Then a resurfacing. I forgot to tell him but since he's got a flow bench I'd like to see how she does. It's a 240 head, I ported on it quite a bit then had it machined for 1.94/1.6 valves. This is the third head I've ported (technically the fifth but the others were V8, so third set? Whatever.) and hopefully I've gotten a little better.

He gave the cam his seal of approval too, so we'll reuse it. I am absolutely kicking myself for my rash stupidity on the lifters. I was in a hurry to get it broken down late one evening and after removing the head rotated the engine 180° on the the stand and dumped all the lifters. So no clue which one came off which lobe, ergo new lifters and another break-in. You know how you're watching your favorite team and some guy screws up and you curse the idiot and ask how in the heck anyone could be so @^*&$!# dumb?

[Lowers head and backs slowly out of the forum]

Anyway, while I'm up there waiting on him I'm checking out all the engines in the shop. SBC, SBC, SBC, SBC, SB...what the? On the stand he's got a 429 he's building. Soon to be a Boss 429 thanks to a set of Kaase heads and a bunch of other goodies. My eyes drift left and the main caps look familiar, is that another Ford? Big block? A 352 FE, now a 452. Nice aluminum heads and, wow, shaft mount rocker arms. He's always got some serious pieces around the shop and every time I go up there I have to resist putting my hands in my pockets like some perv in a porno shop.

 

Oh, yeah, I was giving the intake a good cleaning and noticed a crack on the mounting tab below the #1 runner. I must have gotten a little too enthusiastic with the torque wrench trying to seal the leak. So to a welder it goes. At least I caught it before it snapped upon re-installation. I'm using New Ford Grey paint on the engine and will eventually paint the intake the same color. Considering ceramic coating the exhaust manifolds, depending on cost.

 

Damn, I called a shop about ceramic coating the manifolds and he estimates $140. His shop is about a mile from my house. He's got them now. I picked the silver ceramic. I'm having him ceramic coat a set plus a couple of the cast iron retainer/washers too.

 

Man whatever machine shop did the previous work should be avoided like the plague!! Hopefully this shop does much better work.

 

The tangs on the bearing inserts should have been on the same side of the rod parting line. Are you sure the rod cap was not installed backwards? It looks like it, as the bearing surface seems to have failed evenly across its entire face, suggesting a cap misalignment.

 

Your lifters should be fine to reuse with the little use they have had, without regard to their order.

I would reassemble the rod without bearing shells and see if the two halves line up, although my first guess at the cause of bearing damage would be a clogged oil passage in the crankshaft. A large drop of silicone can do this.