Bearings wiped out

[woodjeep]

Brand new 4.7 stroker.. 2000 total miles.. Had some issue with my copper head gasket leaking water into the block/oil so I was changing my oil every other week. Only the tip of the dipstick was milky...the rest of the 3 inches of oil was clean. All the oil puddled in the heas was clean, no milk. Oil pressure was always 25 or higher at hot idle., 40-60 at higher rpm's. Fixed the leak with a 3rd retorque and gobs of sealant on the #11 bolt. 3 days later I started clunking pretty bad under accelerations. I dropped the pan and started pulling the rod bearing caps off. The cap ends were slightly scored, but the piston side was wiped. All pure copper on every rod top. The mains came out much better...moderate wear on the bottoms...but the journals are still shiny new...the rod journals might need some scotchbrite but theyr'e not too bad. I didn't pull the cam but from the bottom...the lobes look undamaged..no scoring or wear marks and the dist gear looks ok.

1) WHAT did this...I used tons of assembly lube and religously primed the oil system with an old distributor minus the gear and drill motor untill I had lots of oil flowing from the top of every rocker arm once a week ...for weeks until install. Did I eat these during break in or did I wear them away with water in the oil. Whenever I drained the oil it was never milky?

2) Can I get the main bearings out from between the crank and block without disassembly of the timing chain assy. I just want to remove the 2-6 bearing caps and loosen the 1 and 7...slide out the 2-6 bearings then replace the front and back. I still have all the accessories installed and the timing cover/torque converter bolted up and the engine installed. Has anyone actually replaced the mains without disassembly of the front and rear covers?

[6TIME]

Bummer! Were the rods resized? Any pinging issues? You might want to take a peek at your cam bearings too... How much water would drain from the pan when you changed the oil? If the bottom tip of the dipstick was milky, then the oil pickup was definitely sucking the frothy solution up causing potential bearing damage.

[SilverXJ]

Oil + coolant = acid, which will eat bearings. However, it doesn't sound like you had that much coolant in it nor ran it that long for this sort of damage. What were the bearing clearances?

Why are you using a copper head gasket?

[SIXPAK]

Why are you using a copper head gasket?
X2. Put an MLS on and let her go. If your running really high boost or N2O I can see, otherwise you may be better off with a standard MLS.

[IH 392]

That bottom shell looks like it's had a BUNCH! of CRAP! run thrue it!, my bet is the crank and or block WERE NOT cleaned properly before assembly, if the machine shop told you it was ready to assemble they lied!, if you didn't CLEAN! it shame on you!
And x3, what up with the fancy drag race tear it apart once a week and reuse it copper head gasket??

[woodjeep]

The copper head gasket was not my first choice. I screwed up when i ported the combustion chambers. I did not know how much wiggle room I had and opened up one of them just a hair past 4.00 bore. The only regular headgaskets I could find ALL had a 4.00 bore and it would have left me with the gasket sticking into the cc. The only oversized gasket I could find was this copper one from some people out in california, and it had a bore of 4.060 so it would fit my screwed up head.I did not want to get a replacement head because I had just spent a few weeks porting all the intake and exhaust ports and just had a valve job done on it. In hindsight..all this happened during my break in...before my head started leaking...see my swirly oil post from about a month or so ago. I slid the bearings out yesterday...will buff out the journals and remike and see what happens

[IH 392]

Have the combustion chamber welded and then resurface the head, only need to take enough to make it flat, if the machine shop says they can't do it find a competent shop that can do it.

[woodjeep]

By the time I do that( cost wise)... I have seen rebuilt heads with valve jobs shipped for 275. Then I can use a stock gasket. It will just cost me a week or two to port the intake and exhaust...and NOT touch the combustion chambers