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What caused this rod bearing failure?
Posted: May 4th, 2024, 5:31 am
by squinn8810
Hi!
I recently rebuilt and stroked my TJ's motor to a 4.6L. During break in, I would get a minute or two of what I initially thought was an exhaust leak but may have actually been detonation and/or something internal on the bottom end. Pulled the engine out and apart, rod bearing #3 was nearly welded to the crankshaft. Every other bearing looked perfect, main bearings good, cylinder walls good, camshaft and lifters looked surprisingly good as well.
My question is what would cause a single point of failure like this? Plugged oil galley? Bad clearances? I'm by no means an engine guy so crowdsourcing some opinions.
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Re: What caused this rod bearing failure?
Posted: May 6th, 2024, 12:28 am
by Cheromaniac
Possibly either one or both of the two.
Re: What caused this rod bearing failure?
Posted: May 7th, 2024, 2:00 pm
by Russ Pottenger
Did you check your bearing clearances and if so what were they?
Re: What caused this rod bearing failure?
Posted: May 8th, 2024, 8:45 am
by dwg86
Because of where the damage is i would think it was trash in the crankshaft oil hole to the rod bearing.it looks like, from what i can see in the pictures, that the damage is in line with the oil hole in the crank.
Re: What caused this rod bearing failure?
Posted: May 8th, 2024, 8:46 am
by dwg86
What connecting rods did you use?
Re: What caused this rod bearing failure?
Posted: May 11th, 2024, 9:02 pm
by 2grimjim
What Russ said; did you check ALL the bearing clearances when you assembled?
Re: What caused this rod bearing failure?
Posted: May 16th, 2024, 6:25 pm
by squinn8810
dwg86 wrote: ↑May 8th, 2024, 8:45 am
Because of where the damage is i would think it was trash in the crankshaft oil hole to the rod bearing.it looks like, from what i can see in the pictures, that the damage is in line with the oil hole in the crank.
This ended up being the root cause..found a price of debris in the block (no idea where from). Machine shop pretty much said the same thing you did that it was likely debris coming in from oil galley. Machine shop also said if it was bad bearing clearances I would've seen wear across the entire bearing.
Re: What caused this rod bearing failure?
Posted: June 9th, 2024, 10:19 am
by squinn8810
Found where the debris came from! Wow…
Re: What caused this rod bearing failure?
Posted: June 27th, 2024, 1:55 pm
by dwg86
How did happen? Or is that Castel’s used to fill holes?
Re: What caused this rod bearing failure?
Posted: June 27th, 2024, 6:32 pm
by Randy Bobandi
dwg86 wrote: ↑June 27th, 2024, 1:55 pm
How did happen? Or is that Castel’s used to fill holes?
Bolts were too long and blew out the casting
Re: What caused this rod bearing failure?
Posted: June 27th, 2024, 11:15 pm
by dwg86
Sorry spell check…I meant to say fastweld but I see your reply
Re: What caused this rod bearing failure?
Posted: July 3rd, 2024, 12:03 pm
by squinn8810
Randy Bobandi wrote: ↑June 27th, 2024, 6:32 pm
dwg86 wrote: ↑June 27th, 2024, 1:55 pm
How did happen? Or is that Castel’s used to fill holes?
Bolts were too long and blew out the casting
This is correct!