[piniongear]

Here is the rest of the crank main journal shots.
First pic is #1 main, then #2, #3, #4 and #5

The next (and last post of pics) reply has the assembled crank caps showing the bearing wear in them. For some reason the cap bearings show more wear than the upper block bearings......pg

[piniongear]

Here are the main caps and a couple of other shots.......pg

[n-gin]

That is pretty worn out as I have taken apart engines with 100,000 miles that dont look 1/4 as bad as that looks. Also looks like the belts were over tightened too.

[piniongear]

Originally Posted by n-gin

That is pretty worn out as I have taken apart engines with 100,000 miles that dont look 1/4 as bad as that looks. Also looks like the belts were over tightened too.

You mean the fan belt was too tight?
Hmmm, it has a self tightening serpentine belt on it, so I do not understand what you mean, I guess..........pg

[piniongear]

I sent you a PM regarding who I bought this engine from.......pg

[Jmark]

Originally Posted by piniongear

I sent you a PM regarding who I bought this engine from.......pg

Thanks, I'll be stopping by there sometime soon. I know where it is but don't know much about it, but will make a few calls too. It's actually right across the street from the shop that did my other engine about 15 years ago.

And since you did find the receipt and can verify the builder, I see no problem listing his company name for future searches on him. From what i've seen from your engine, it's a dirtbag company, www.fivestarengines.com

here is his BBB sheet.

Mark

[piniongear]

Originally Posted by Jmark

Thanks, I'll be stopping by there sometime soon. I know where it is but don't know much about it, but will make a few calls too. It's actually right across the street from the shop that did my other engine about 15 years ago.
And since you did find the receipt and can verify the builder, I see no problem listing his company name for future searches on him. From what i've seen from your engine, it's a dirtbag company, www.fivestarengines.com
here is his BBB sheet.
Mark

Thanks Mark.
I did some more looking myself this AM and found some complaints on Ripoff Report regarding Five Star Engines.
I filed a report myself and told it as it is. I cannot blame Five Star since I have 3 years and 15K miles on the engine, but at the same time the engine should last what, 100,000 miles if built properly?

I bought my engine from Chris and he always gave me excellent customer service every time I called him, which was a number of times. So, in all fairness, please tell him that along with the photos of the junk they sold me.

In 2005 I got an email from a stranger who had bought a Five Star 350. His question was....'Have I had any problem with my engine?'
He told me that he and a number of others have engines with serious problems from Five Star.
My reply was that at the time I only had 5K miles on it and had no problem. But, as you may imagine, I did not sleep well for the next few nights until thought of the email was forgotten (somewhat anyways)

I would appreciate hearing how the visit went after you get by there......pg

[T-bucket23]

It almost looks like something went wrong in their cleaning process that left crap in the oil galleys. The was everything is worn is very strange. Almost looks like something abrasive was floating arround in the engine. I wounder if there cleaning tank somehow got poluted.

That engine looks more like a 200K engine than a 15K engine

[piniongear]

Originally Posted by T-bucket23

It almost looks like something went wrong in their cleaning process that left crap in the oil galleys. The was everything is worn is very strange. Almost looks like something abrasive was floating arround in the engine. I wounder if there cleaning tank somehow got poluted.
That engine looks more like a 200K engine than a 15K engine

I can not agree with you more on the engine condition. What in the world could cause such damage to all of the bearings, yet show no signs of heat anywhere, nor is there, or ever has been, any metal in the oil which is changed along with a filter every 3K miles.
This one has me really puzzled.
I finally got a lead from the husband of a friend of my wife's. He owns and drives a Chevy oval track car and he gave me the name of the automotive machine shop that builds his engines.
I called the shop this morning and described the mess. He said I may want to consider a short block rather than put money into the machine work. He would line bore everything, turn the crank and then I would put it all together.
He said the cost is going to perhaps be the same as a short block.
Maybe, but with a short block I may be right where I am today in a couple of years, since I do not know who built it.
This 1992 van is only the 4th car or truck I have owned since 1965. So that tells you I run them quite a long time.
I will take the block and parts to the machine shop tomorrow and see what he says after looking it over..........pg

[Jmark]

Originally Posted by T-bucket23

It almost looks like something went wrong in their cleaning process that left crap in the oil galleys. The was everything is worn is very strange. Almost looks like something abrasive was floating arround in the engine. I wounder if there cleaning tank somehow got poluted.

That engine looks more like a 200K engine than a 15K engine

Agreed,,,if you look at the closeup pics of the crank and notice the scoring that seems to start at the cross drilled holes, it's almost like a load of crap came out on startup and scored everything.

[oldbogie]

Originally Posted by piniongear

OK, I got the number piston out this morning.
To start with:
I checked the crankshaft end play and it was .015. The book tells me it should be .002 to .006, so that is a negative.
I checked the side clearance of #1 rod and it was .015 gap. Book says .006 to .014, so I am just a little wide on that.

You guys were correct in saying I did not need a reamer. But I used it anyway and one rotation cleaned it to the metal.
Now for some photos:
The first pic is of the insert in the cap. It is stamped .010. Does this tell me the bearing is .010 oversize (that the crank journal has been ground down) .010?

The next two pics are of the rod inserts. They look really worn, considering the engine has only 15K miles on it. Half of the ebarings have copper color showing and the other half have silver showing.
Can anyone give me an idea if the bearings may be bad or not? They look very bad to me, but I hae no experience with this kind of thing.

I will do another post with photos of the piston and bore. Hang tight.....pg

Looking at the rod bearing that's your knock. That's the upper, what does the lower half look like?

.010 is telling you it's a turned undersize crank. What is the surface quality, at 15000 miles it should be smooth if not polished. The journal needs to be consistently circular from end to end as well. I'd expect roughness since it's been eating the bearing and that stuff has been circulating. Telling what is bad machining from damage done by the bearing will be hard to tell apart at this point.

What do the mains look like?

What is the condition of the thrust bearing? And what is the crank's fore and aft clearance on the thrust bearing?

Operation can lead to excessive bearing wear, what I see here is also typical of an engine operating under high loading at low RPMs. The problem that lugging causes is that the load in the bearing is high and the oil flow low. A solution is gearing up so the engine spins faster making more oil flow or installing a high volume pump to get the pressure/flow up at lower RPMs. This talk about 10psi per 1000 RPM is gross generalization more suitable for grocery getters than vehicles that work for a living. This is not an issue of type of oil (synthetic versus mineral) nor to some extent even the weight. It's an issue of putting enough oil thru the bearing to both support the development of the hydrodynamic wedge that floats the bearing above the journal with enough strength that forces on the rods aren't greater which just blows the oil out the clearance, the other is enough oil flow to take the heat out of the bearing and journal. In the latter case the greater the forces in the bearing/journal the higher the local heat being generated. Good oil flow is necessary to take this heat out.

Bogie

[Jmark]

I just called a competator that is in the same area, a machine shop i've used before. I asked him "what do you think about Five Sta* *******", that was as far as I got before he broke into un-controllable laughter! I guess that about says it for me. He'd like to see the pictures too. Guess I can hit 2 shops in one trip!

[74chevy454]

wow I am eager to hear what the guy says after u go by there, should be interesting.

[Jmark]

One last question and opportunity for more pictures! LOL What shape are the cam and cam bearings in? Ok, or trashed lobes too?

Mark

[piniongear]

Originally Posted by Jmark

One last question and opportunity for more pictures! LOL What shape are the cam and cam bearings in? Ok, or trashed lobes too?

Mark

The cam looks pretty good. The bearings are not worn to the copper like all of the mains and rods.
The lobes look good too, although I am far from an expert. They show some signs of wear.....like I cannot say this is a new cam because you see wear or tracks on the lobes.
There is one lifter that I could not get out however until I removed the cam.
This is also from my old friend cylinder #5.
The bottom of the lifter is concave. Very concave. All the rest of the lifters came out easily and are dead flat across their bottoms.
I don't know if the concave will show, but I will take a photo of it and stick to this post..... (It shows)
The bad lifter base is really fished tailed out. The spread is so great that it would not come out of the block topside. The edge is sharp like a razor. The other lifters by comparasion, have a nice smooth beveled edge to them....pg