well, rod knock no longer a mystery.

[haycait911]

finally got my rod knocking 3.0 torn down. ALL of the oil passages to the big rod bearings were blocked to one degree or another. two of them blocked completely at both ends! there is a kind of reddish plastic stuff stuck at the ends of the passages, against the bearings.









not sure what it is, kind of a hard plastic. the case was FULL of black silicone-like chunks. I'm thinking from a fairly recent rebuild, extra sealant squeeze-out. crank journals look fine so I'm hoping to get away with new bearings only, but will get crank miked.

moral of the story, when assembling, CLEANLINESS IS KEY!!
this ends our public service announcement, thank you.

P.S. to Wayne. your book is a lifesaver. thanks!

[Wayne 962]

Hmm, the Loctite 574 material wouldn't do this. That is one of the reasons why I recommend it...

Not sure what that crap is, any more clues? More photos?

-Wayne

[haycait911]

tough to get a decent pic of the gook out of the crank. it's translucent orange and I can cut it with a fingernail. here's a couple of more pics showing the degree of cr-p in the case. this isn't oil sludge, it's like silicone or maybe permatex 2.

[DUK]

I hate to ask but what oil was being used. I know you won't believe this but I saw almost the same thing when a 5.8l Ford was broken in and ran with Sohio oil (now BP). It clogged his hyd. lifters and made them tick loudly so it never got this far.

[gestalt1]

it looks like on the case mating surfaces there is black silicon squeeze out still on the edges. i don't see why there would be loctite 574 in an engine that has so much black silicone used. maybe the orange stuff is some other type of silicone sealent, isn't silicone's natural color orange? any idea who rebuilt this engine?

[john walker's workshop]

sure looks like 574. the orange suff that is.

[Quicksilver]

My first impression was that it was plastigauge but there is too much goo there.

I can't see that this motor could have run very long this way. It shouldn't be hard to chase down the culprit.

[haycait911]

the only journal that shows any damage is the one closest to the flywheel, surface is a little dark. that one had a completely plugged passage and a slightly scored bearing. I can't even get a wire thru it to clear it. I think you're right quicksilver, it couldn't have been run long like this. I ran the engine maybe 5 minutes when I got it, before pulling it out. it appears silicone WAS used to seal the case halves, so who knows what the red gook was used for. I'll get the crank checked and maybe polished and new rod bearings. count myself very lucky and move on.

[john walker's workshop]

was 574 used on the mainwebs?