Well, I have finally decided to tear down my engine and see what the problem is. I have found some bearing problems and I was curious to see what others think of what I have found.

This all started in April about 4 or 5 days after a dyno tune. I noticed a lot of phantom knock on my logger(20-40 counts). I also noticed a ticking coming from the bottom end. I Never had any fluctuations in oil pressure so I didnt think much about it. Well, after driving it for another week, the noise never got worse and neither did the phantom knock. I decided to park it untill I had completed moving so today, I finally had a chance to pull it apart. Also, keep in mind that this engine has over 6k miles on it and I have never had any issues what so ever.

the bearings are from left to right, 1, 2, 3, 4. Rod side is on top and cap side is on the bottom. The bearings never spun, oil clean except some babbot from the bearings, and no magnetic particles in the oil what so ever. I also included a pic of the #4 and 5 main cap bearings and also the #1 and 4 rod caps. I know its not oil starvation because the #4 rod bearing is the best looking of the bunch. No trash in the oil to be found so the only thing Im left to beleive is poor bearing clearances. But if so, I should have had problems long before now. Also, before assembly, the rods had .0013-.0015 clearance. Mains were .0015-.0018.

I would like to hear some opininions on what everyone sees. And please, no "check your oil" or anything like that. I prefer to hear some educated guesses.

Sorry to hear that. From my experience I would have to go on the rods were not machined correctly or the caps got mixed up some how on the install. The wear is consitant all over the bearing so I would have to guess the rods were not truly round and the bearing material was rolling over itself causing the wear. I am assuming you used 1g rods from your engine internals from what you have posted. I will get my machinist SUPARATA to look at them also to tell you exactly what happened. If they were forged rods were they checked???

TSIfreek said:

Sorry to hear that. From my experience I would have to go on the rods were not machined correctly or the caps got mixed up some how on the install. The wear is consitant all over the bearing so I would have to guess the rods were not truly round and the bearing material was rolling over itself causing the were. I am assuming you used 1g rods from your engine internals from what you have posted. I will get my machinist SUPRATA to look at them also to tell you exactly what happened. If they were forged rods were they checked???

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They are 1g rods that had arp bolts installed. I had one shop do the machine work and then had had a second shop double check them before assembly. I still need to remove the crank from the block and check it myself. I noticed the #2 bearing wore quite a bit on one side so Im curious as to whether it was the rod machined inproperly or if the crank journal had some taper to it. It just seems strange for it to happen out of the blue with no prior problems. It seems even more strange that all this happened and it never spun a bearing. On the bright side, the crank looks perfect and so do the rods. I just need to find the cause and remedy it before I reassemble the engine.

Also, the material didnt roll over, it actually peeled off of the bearing. These are king bearings so it really surprised me. I guess I will try some acl bearings next time around to see how they perform. And I also want to apologize for the crappy pics. I would get a better camera but the dsm always takes my extra $.

And to clarify, I numbered the rods and caps during the original disassembly so I know there was no mistake on reassembly. I even checked it as I was pulling them apart today.

Do you have pictures of the rod journals on the crank?

Ultimatedsm said:

Do you have pictures of the rod journals on the crank?

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No, but the crank is fine. This happened well over a year ago. The car has been back together since then with the same crank and no issues.

The problem ended up being a piece of casting from the oil passage in the front of the block came loose and imbedded itself into the #2 main bearing. Debris from that circulated through the oil and trashed the rest of the bearings.