Spun bearing, it's it really bad?

[GrimmLegion]

To start off, here the deal, I know the info is out there, and I know what I SHOULD do. But for the sake of getting more road life out of this engine I'm not doing a full blown rebuild. It's just not in my budget and this is my DD. So I ended up getting this car about 3-4 weeks ago. Did some fixing up of stuff I knew was wrong, changed timing belt, alt/PS belt, spark plugs, CV joint boot and tie rod end. After a old change I had to go somewhere and about a mile down the road Im getting very random knocks. So I go back home and check on things. Oil is good, not leaking, motor is idling no knock. I rev it up a little to 2k, and there's a knock. I play with it for about a minute more then shut it off. Got in my other car finished what I had to do. Googled random engine knock, and looked through two hours worth of info and videos. I then came across a forum where someone stated to pull the spark plugs one at a time and if the knock goes away it's a rod bearing on that cylinder. So I do that, and #4 pulled I couldn't get it to knock. So today I had some time to Jack up the car and pull the oil pan.

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If this was gold, I'm going to be rich. So moving on I wiggle all the rod caps and only #4 moved, wasn't much but it moved. So I remove the cap and at first couldn't find the bearing, but soon realized it was stuck on the crank. Got both halves off and this is what everything looking like.

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Crank have very very minor scratches on it. I could polish it up myself. Bearing are shot, and seem to have overheating marks on them. I'm guessing after I changed the oil, the flakes gathered near my oil pick up line, which seems to have been dented on the bottom causing it to touch the pick up screen. And once it was running clogged the screen enough to cause low oil press starving #4 rod bearing. Or could have been doing this for a while, I know know. So my question to anyone willing to add their two cents, is it worth just polishing the crank and replacing the bearings? I haven't pulled the rest of the rods yet but I figured I'd just replace them all anyways. Now this did cross my mind being that these are gold looking flakes, my turbo doesn't have play in it. Maybe .5 - 1 mm side to side but I have to pull on it really good to get that play. Here is what is left of the bearing sitting on the cap looks like

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So what's your input guys? Also I'm doing this from my phone so if anything is out of whack post wise my bad.

 

[92AWDHX40]

Been there have the crank checked if you spun a bearing it will more than likely to have it cut and check bearings. typical bottom and rebuild.

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

That oiling hole looks small or its just the picture. Does it look that way to anyone else?

 

[Dstarperformance01]

Looks small but could be the picture. Definitely looks odd @1990TSIAWDTALON

My question is why is the bearing so out of round? That's a little strange

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

Those "gold flakes" are now everywhere in your oil system you realize, right?

 

[dcoker7705]

^ yeah as stated above there are shavings throughout your entire motor! Replacing the bearings and polishing the crank will be nothing but a bandaid. Few thousand miles down the road you'll be in the same boat... disassemble and clean you'll regret it if you don't trust me!!!

 

[Kryndon]

Have the crank machined properly and polished, you'll have to run oversized bearings but that's why they sell them in bigger sizes. Since the cambelt will be off, I'd suggest taking off the camshafts and giving them a good inspection + cleaning. When you get the engine all back together, it's good to use one of those special oils where you run the engine for about 10 minutes at 2-3k RPM to get all the loose shit off (including shavings) and drain it all out.

This is exactly what I went through last Summer and the car has done 4500 miles with no issues. Good luck.

 

[Teezy]

.20 Npr pistons, 6 bolt rods, king bearings, have the crank inspected so it can be cut/polished, and have the block decked. While you're there might as well send the head off as well for a rebuild. Have a 3 angle valve job completed and the head milled. This is what I would do on a budget.

 

[Tigerinstincts]

Yeah there's no way around cheaping out on this type of situation. You definitely can by slapping a new bearing in there just for cylinder 4 but that has a low chance of success. No one can tell you accurately how long that would even last too. Just because you read some dude pulling it off doesn't mean your situation will be the same and even if it was, the stars would have to align just right for it to work out (sarcasm).

There are metal shavings all in your oil system that will damage other bearing surfaces or worse in a short amount of time if you do not do a proper rebuild like suggested above. Unfortunately that's the route you need to take despite your budget. What sucks is that it looks like you caught it early enough before it really tore up the crank.

 

[GrimmLegion]

Thanks guys for the suggestions. And yes the oil holes are small, seems the wearing closed them up. Or could have been from the wrong bearings from the beginning. The locks are also beaten out as well. Like I've posted before I know what I SHOULD do l what I'm stuck with is I have to run it like it is for the sake of keeping my job. I have another motor that i can put in, its just not ready to install because thats the in process of being built. Thats why this motor in the car is a budget. I was hoping the flakes where too large to pass through the screen. Oddly there are NO silver "dust" particals which I've seen in tons of pans pulled because of bearings going bad. Personally I've need seen gold flakes, but there's a first for everything. As far as the rest of the metal shavings in the motor, shouldn't the oil filter filter out what could pass by the screen? I've thought about pulling the oil pump to see if anything is stuck in there. Also the old oil filter didn't have anything in it that I could seen. Later today I'll cut it open and post what I find. All in all if I get another 1,000 miles out of this nearly 200,000+ mile motor ID be fine with that. My original question was meant for some feed back for if the crank looked too trashed. But from what I've read on here loohereike you guys are mostly concerned about crank being out of spec and shavings in the oil. I've taken note as to what what mentioned and I know just slapping bearing in is a bandaid, but on this rare occasion, I need that bandaid because surgery has already been paid for, I'm just waiting on the completion date to arrive. Sorry for the pun, I couldn't help myself. So in my case measure the crank, if it's okay, polish and replace bearings, hope for the best, replace motor when it's done. Worst case scenario, motor blows up and I have to wait til I can put in the other one. Here is a side by side of cyc #3 with #4. Leads me to believe the screen was clogged and oil pressurethreelow. Rods 2 and 1 look the same as #3.

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But thanks for the input guys it's been helpful.

 

[GrimmLegion]

Thanks guys for the suggestions. And yes the oil holes are small, seems the wearing closed them up. Or could have been from the wrong bearings from the beginning. The locks are also beaten out as well. Like I've posted before I know what I SHOULD do l what I'm stuck with is I have to run it like it is for the sake of keeping my job. I have another motor that i can put in, its just not ready to install because thats the in process of being built. Thats why this motor in the car is a budget. I was hoping the flakes where too large to pass through the screen. Oddly there are NO silver "dust" particals which I've seen in tons of pans pulled because of bearings going bad. Personally I've need seen gold flakes, but there's a first for everything. As far as the rest of the metal shavings in the motor, shouldn't the oil filter filter out what could pass by the screen? I've thought about pulling the oil pump to see if anything is stuck in there. Also the old oil filter didn't have anything in it that I could seen. Later today I'll cut it open and post what I find. All in all if I get another 1,000 miles out of this nearly 200,000+ mile motor ID be fine with that. My original question was meant for some feed back for if the crank looked too trashed. But from what I've read on here loohereike you guys are mostly concerned about crank being out of spec and shavings in the oil. I've taken note as to what what mentioned and I know just slapping bearing in is a bandaid, but on this rare occasion, I need that bandaid because surgery has already been paid for, I'm just waiting on the completion date to arrive. Sorry for the pun, I couldn't help myself. So in my case measure the crank, if it's okay, polish and replace bearings, hope for the best, replace motor when it's done. Worst case scenario, motor blows up and I have to wait til I can put in the other one. Here is a side by side of cyc #3 with #4. Leads me to believe the screen was clogged and oil pressurethreelow. Rods 2 and 1 look the same as #3.

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But thanks for the input guys it's been helpful.