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sparklies in oil

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SrKegler

15+ Year Contributor
1,123
35
Feb 29, 2004
Daytona Beach, Florida
HELP Bogus!!!!

Need some guidance. Was going to replace the front seal due to oil leak and found sparklies in the oil when I drained it. Pulled the front case off and found the driven gear had ate into the housing. Got a new front case ordered.

What worries me is the material that has gone thru the engine. Advice on where to proceed, what to do as a minimum.

Rod bearings are OK, going to replace them anyhow since it's torn down. Main bearings though are a different story. Have no means to pull the engine. Can new mains be rolled in the way we used to do the chevy engines?

Don;t want to take a chance on ruining the car after 20 yrs of good service.
 
I would pull it you at have material in engine still you can't see. It can be pulled from bottom too no since in changing it twice. Roller no sure what that is may have to get another crank or have it cut.
 
Best bet is to get it out and fully clean it, more so since the damage happened in the front case, that metal went straight to the bearing surfaces.

When a rod bearing fails the metal flake falls into the oil pan, big chunks are stopped by the pick up screen, smaller ones work thu the pump and get trapped in the filter, what doesn't goes thu the oiling system.

You made the flake in the front case, so no filtering happened to catch it.

the head needs to be pulled down some to, pull the cams and inspect the cam journals and the cam towers in the head for scarring,

if that looks good, pull the hlas out, then the oil galley plugs and the HLA regulator and flush all the oil passages.

I would pitch the HLAs and replace with new ones since they hold oil, also the oil cooler sandwich plate, if you are equipped with the water cooled one.

The oil galley balls need removed from the crank, the crank needs to be mic'ed and inspected closely.

Now with the oil pan off and the front case, go on and pull the head, and push the pistons and rods out.

Finish unbolting the engine, grab a buddy and a strong pole and some chain, with some luck, and not blowing out your back, you should be able on lifting the block and crank out the car.
 
Another thing worth mentioning is that if you try to shortcut any of this you will ruin your new front case/oil pump as it's pretty sensitive to debris going through it.

I hope you bought the helical pump so that there's more straight cut ones when I need another. :D
 
Update

Finally got the block pulled and disassembled.

Now I'm really confused. Ordered in a new front case because I thought my stubby shaft had eaten up my old one. It measures the same as my new one. The little indentation where the driven sprocket sets is what I thought had caused the problem. Apparently thats just the way it's machined.

After tearing the engine completely apart, the only thing I can find is bad #3 bearing. Didn't spin, just a chunk missing. Crank is being polished now. Not sure if I'm going to be able to get those ball plugs out or not.

I've run my rifle rod and 5.56 bore brush thru all the oil galleries in the block and head, ran 20 gauge through the main galley. NOTHING!!!

Can't figure out why the main bearing failed.

Only symptoms of problems the car gave me was higher than normal vibrations around 2500-3500 rpm. Will a worn main cause vibrations??

I replaced all timing components, water pump and harmonic balancer trying to get rid of the vibration.

What could have caused the bearing to fail. In the last 20 years car has never gone more than 3500 miles between oil and filter changes.
 
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