Story of the Spun Rod Bearing (or, why I should be shot)

[d.a.autry]

Okay, yeah I should be shot, but hey . . .it's still running!! The car was a mistreated '86 Turbo.

Of course it was #2. The journal wasn't damaged really bad and it mic'ed within specks and the big end was still good. . . . .I observed the oil flow chart and when I determined that any filings would have dropped into the pan and would have been caught by the filter before going anywhere else, I simply cleaned the journal, put new bearings on all the rods, buttoned it up and sent him running.

It's really a long story, he obtained the car via an unpaid loan he had made to a 'friend'. He wasn't sure if he was keeping the car and I felt, for the money he wanted to spend at the time, that it was worth a shot. I started it, ran it with a sludge cleaner for about 10 mins. Drained that oil and put in Mobil1, another filter and off he went.

It seems to be doing fine. He's put about 3.5k on it since. No rod knocks etc. I told him that I could with reasonable certainty give him 5k. But knowing these cranks and rods I wouldn't be surprised if it went another 50 to 75k.

I've spun #2 in a NA before ('86) and although I did a complete rebuild and used another crank, the journal on the old one would probably only need to be polished out a little. I've actually ran 911 cranks in track engines with journals that looked worse. The big end on the rod was a little out of round though so I replaced all the rods with the earlier model Sintered rods.

I dunno WHAT the idiot that he obtained it from had done to the poor car. He told my friend that he was "a top rated p-car mechanic" and that he had installed all these bulls(*& upgrades like CF hood, fenders, upgrade suspension components, etc. I hated to have to burst my friends bubble after looking the car over. Basically bone stock except for what appears to be one non-metal fender on the drivers side. . . I don't think it's CF though.

Oh, we also had to replace his headers, #2&3 had totally separated at the merge. Turbo wasn't spooling up at all!!!


C'est le Vie!! I really want to see how far it'll go

[pokey]

Waited 3500 miles to post about it, huh? If it didn't hold up, we never would have heard about it, would we? J/K
Keep it on the road...

[d.a.autry]

Not on your life!!!

Wait'll ya hear about the Dodge Caravan 400 series transaxle . . . . . and the JB Weld!!!

[pokey]

Thought so...

[Panzer909]

Originally posted by d.a.autry
Not on your life!!!

Wait'll ya hear about the Dodge Caravan 400 series transaxle . . . . . and the JB Weld!!!

Do tell! I had a hairline crack in my Bimmer's diff, and it has been fine with JB Weld ever since. (No I'm not a proponent of cheapo-quickie fixes either).

[d.a.autry]

Ain't that some amazing stuff?? I dunno if I'd trust it in a stress or strain area to much, but it bamboozles me as to how well it works.

No, the spider gear (planetary??) pin has a way of working loose on these things. Anyway it rubbed a nice hole right through the case. Fluid was pouring out. I drilled two holes, fashioned a strip of aluminiun across the hole (more like a rectangle hole), bolted this in place and covered inside and out with JB. BTW, I drilled the hardened pin and put a set screw in place, not gonna let that happen again.

ANYway, I ran it almost 10k with no probs before I sold it. I know eventually, if the van doesn't end up in a yard, some mechanic, some where is gonna say. . . "What the FU*#!!!"


Hmmm, I wonder if I could have used it to repair the cylinder wall on my hydrolocked block

[Britwrench]

The old Minis used to do that in the 70s. The inner drive coupling ( a piece of not all that good rubber) would become oil soaked and then expand and rub through the gearbox case...which would leak.
BMC (or whoever owned it then) came up with Belzona two-part adhesive. Clean it off, fill the hole and off the car goes till something else broke. Which was usually not long. So it's not new.

[Zero10]

If the crank mic'd within spec, and the big end was without damage, then you should be good to go. Sometimes people get lucky when they spin rod bearings.
I'd expect it to go much more than 5k

[d.a.autry]

Originally posted by Zero10
I'd expect it to go much more than 5k

Yeah, me too, but I'd rather be pessimistic and him be happy, than optimistic and him think of me as an idiot.