Gouge in main bearing journal..thoughts?

[964oilpours]

Hello all, new to porsches, not new to engine tear downs.
When tearing down my engine (964 C2 92k miles) I found this one gouge in the main..you can see it on the backside of the bearing as well..the engine definitely did not appear to have been torn down before. All the bearings are in great shape, just tore down to reseal and then one thing led to the next.. just wanted to get some opinions on this. Kind of seems like a place for a crack to develop..
Thanks

[Flat6pac]

I thought I was looking at #1 bearing with the pop mark but in reality it’s #2 with the split.
Does the split go into the web or is it just a mark on the saddle?
Bruce

[Mark Henry]

Looks like a crack in the saddle, if it is the case is toast.
That bearing has been moving around a lot.

[bpu699]

Really really odd place for a stress crack!

Why couldn't that be welded and machined down?

[964oilpours]

Its pretty shallow, but enough to catch your nail in it.. It seems very wide and shallow to be a crack to me but I really cant think of another scenario to cause this

[Catorce]

That's really bizarre. Are you sure it's not a deep scratch from some dolt trying to remove the bearing with a sharp object like an awl or screwdriver?

I agree it can be welded, but the cause of this is baffling.

If it is a crack, I would suspect a bad casting. That part of the case is really really hard to pour right. The cases I make are sand cast and that is the lowest part of the mold; Porsche Die Cast theirs so the molten metal is fed into the mold under pressure, but those areas are still tricky to cast right.

Never seen anything like that.

You need to determine if it is a crack or not. I'd get a knowledgeable shop to do a dye penetrant test.

[Mark Henry]

Is the line mark just transferred to the bearing back or is the back cracked?
I agree it's very odd and being originally from the VW T1 side I've seen some pretty beat bearings and saddles.

[Trakrat]

It looks like something got caught between the bearing when it got pushed on and scraped it.

[Steve@Rennsport]

Originally Posted by Trakrat

It looks like something got caught between the bearing when it got pushed on and scraped it.

Thats what I think, too. Still, I would have it Zyglowed to be sure.

The bearings show a lot of dirt embedded in them so there it that.

[otto_kretschmer]

Looks like a gouge to me. If it was a crack you wouldn't see the shiny aluminum at the bottom of the crack.

I would clean the case as good as I could and look at it with as strong of a magnifying glass as I could find and reevaluate. Its a possible stress riser and could be cleaned up with an align bore and oversize bearings if they're available.

[otto_kretschmer]

Its possible that this isn't the original engine that came with the car and its been taken apart by a previous owner. Someone may have used a mallet and screwdriver to remove the bearing from the saddle in the case and created the gouge.