The Top DSM Community on the Web

For 1990-1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse, Eagle Talon, Plymouth Laser, and Galant VR-4 Owners. Log in to remove most ads.

Please Support Fuel Injector Clinic
Please Support Morrison Fabrication

Diagnose my bearing failure on 6 bolt 2.3 liter stroker

This site may earn a commission from merchant
affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

gsxitement

20+ Year Contributor
1,887
1,665
Dec 9, 2002
DOBBS FERRY, New_York
Ok. Lowdown. 2.3 liter stroker. Road race motor. Rebuilt it over the winter with King Bearings +.001" for oil clearance. No squirters, no bshafts. Car was on the Dyno. Did fine. Was running Brad Penn break-in oil. SAE 30. Went to Pocono for an event. Changed the oil to Brad Penn 20w50. Was on false grid with the motor idling for 15 minutes. Two laps of caution. They dropped the green flag, made it 3 corners and spun #3 rod bearing. Got the motor out and dissassembled. What do y'all think? Oil pressure was fine. Only thing I noticed was oil pressure was higher than normal when trying to coast back to the pits. 60psi @3K rpm.
Pics:
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
 
its hard to say from just looking at the bearings. After a bearing shreds, every thing gets chewed up. you could of had a restricted oil passage. if your pressure sensor is upsteam of the restriction it will appear to have good (or high) oil pressure.

It would be impossible to tell now because the pieces of bearing are clogging everything now.
 
The way I'm interpreting it and I'm no engine builder. Up till the center main the outer shell is wiped then the other downstream look as though they've gotten metal from the other failed bearings. Myself I would be inspecting the oil passages in the block for trash and the crank oil drill passages. Pull out the rear block galley plug and brush the shit out of it and make sure nothing is stuck inside.
That would be the direction I would take especially since you had higher than normal pressure indicating a blockage somewhere in your oiling system.
 
The way I'm interpreting it and I'm no engine builder. Up till the center main the outer shell is wiped then the other downstream look as though they've gotten metal from the other failed bearings. Myself I would be inspecting the oil passages in the block for trash and the crank oil drill passages. Pull out the rear block galley plug and brush the sh** out of it and make sure nothing is stuck inside.
That would be the direction I would take especially since you had higher than normal pressure indicating a blockage somewhere in your oiling system.

The higher then normal oil pressure was only after the bearing went. I should've specified that. Which was probably from all the junk blocking the crank oiling ports.
 
its hard to say from just looking at the bearings. After a bearing shreds, every thing gets chewed up. you could of had a restricted oil passage. if your pressure sensor is upsteam of the restriction it will appear to have good (or high) oil pressure.

It would be impossible to tell now because the pieces of bearing are clogging everything now.

My pressure gauge is mechanical. It gets it's feed right at the oil filter housing. It's just weird that the front of the motor is cooked, while the last few bearings in the back of the motor are not as bad. The bearings in the back of the motor show signs of debris fouling, but other than that, they're not terrible. If it was an oil supply problem, the wear would be the opposite. The bearings would would get worse the further you got from the oil pump.
 
What kind of oil pump are you running? what kind of filter? does it have a bypass?, how many miles on it? what do the piston skirts look like? that looks like a pump failure or the oil pickup in the pan was operating uncovered from oil being pushed away from it, the 2.3 setup is hard on bearings as is, if you revved it very high that might have wiped the bearing, clogged the filter and then starved the others, otherwise pump failure or internal oil pressure leak somewhere.
 
What kind of oil pump are you running? what kind of filter? does it have a bypass?, how many miles on it? what do the piston skirts look like? that looks like a pump failure or the oil pickup in the pan was operating uncovered from oil being pushed away from it, the 2.3 setup is hard on bearings as is, if you revved it very high that might have wiped the bearing, clogged the filter and then starved the others, otherwise pump failure or internal oil pressure leak somewhere.

6 bolt straight cut oil pump. Magnus rebuildable oil filter, OFH port mod, Pistons are fine. 18 miles on the motor. To be fair, we'll say ten of those miles were from being on the Dyno and the three laps around Poconos S/E course. The rest were from driving around the paddock and doing figure 8's and circles to break in the Evo3 LSD I put in.
 
How was the crankshaft prepared? Cut or std sized? Were the galley balls removed for cleaning?
Crank was just given a light polish. When the motor came apart during the off season, there was nothing wrong with the motor. So the crank got a light polish and a bath. I do believe the balls were pulled.
 
Something bad happened with that low of miles on those bearings, does the magnus setup have a bypass valve for a clogged filter? Im wondering if the filter clogged and cost you oil supply to your bearings, that or some type of internal pressure leak like I said earlier. Pull a couple of your cam caps and lets see the bearing surfaces on them.
 
Last edited:
Something bad happened with that low of miles on those bearings, does the magnus setup have a bypass valve for a clogged filter? Im wondering if the filter clogged and cost you oil supply to your bearings, that or some type of internal pressure leak like I said earlier. Pull a couple of your cam caps and lets see the bearing surfaces on them.


Will do.
 
So from the last failure did you have the block hot tanked?or was there a previous failure? I thought I remember somethig about bearings in your off season tear down, is it possible the crank journals are out of round? And I told you to get rid of that magnus filter. :idontknow:
 
Something bad happened with that low of miles on those bearings, does the magnus setup have a bypass valve for a clogged filter? Im wondering if the filter clogged and cost you oil supply to your bearings, that or some type of internal pressure leak like I said earlier. Pull a couple of your cam caps and lets see the bearing surfaces on them.
The magnus has no relief valve, it has a magnet on the top, but otherwise is a solid stainless mesh filter element with a steel top, in an aluminum shell, with a way too thin o ring to seal to the ofh.
 
So from the last failure did you have the block hot tanked?or was there a previous failure? I thought I remember somethig about bearings in your off season tear down, is it possible the crank journals are out of round? And I told you to get rid of that magnus filter. :idontknow:


Lol. The filter wasn't the problem. So thing else caused the issue. Yeah we had a failing oil pump last season and we're lucky to catch it before it caused catastrophic failure. The block wasn't hot tanked, but I cleaned the hell out if it. We'll see what the machine shop says. I've been running that Magnus filter since 2012. I like it.
 
Lol. The filter wasn't the problem. So thing else caused the issue. Yeah we had a failing oil pump last season and we're lucky to catch it before it caused catastrophic failure. The block wasn't hot tanked, but I cleaned the hell out if it. We'll see what the machine shop says. I've been running that Magnus filter since 2012. I like it.
I know you like it, just saying! Haha

Wonder if the previous oil pump failure contributed to this, due to incomplete cleaning? Or what if it’s the same reason both pumps failed? What do you think?
 
I know you like it, just saying! Haha

Wonder if the previous oil pump failure contributed to this, due to incomplete cleaning? Or what if it’s the same reason both pumps failed? What do you think?


The previous pump failure was from it being a helical oil pump with a stub shaft. And even then, it didn't break anything. There was no metal in the motor after that. It certainly didn't shred a bearing. That motor was together for something like 6 years or so. And it never missed a beat. We'll see what King says when I send them the pics.
 
calico coated ACL's are the way to go
 

Attachments

  • DSC04062_cr_cr.jpg
    DSC04062_cr_cr.jpg
    128.2 KB · Views: 69
I sent the pics and as much info as I could to King. The guys there are really nice. I highly doubt it was a bearing defect or malfunction on the bearing end. Most likely a piece of trash or maybe spinning the car on the Dyno with the break-in oil in there? We'll find out.
 
Interesting, I run the king bearings too, just idled and ran around the block for a bit LOL

Have to check clearances, make sure all the oil galleys are clean, check the oil pump too.

If you had healthy oil pressure, this would make it seem like you have a foreign contamination.
 
Support Vendors who Support the DSM Community
Boosted Fabrication ECM Tuning ExtremePSI Fuel Injector Clinic Innovation Products Jacks Transmissions JNZ Tuning Kiggly Racing Morrison Fabrications MyMitsubishiStore.com RixRacing RockAuto RTM Racing STM Tuned

Latest posts

Build Thread Updates

Vendor Updates

Latest Classifieds

Back
Top