Bearings Look Bad? Advice :(

TRIBUNAL · Oct 23, 2016

so for those who haven't heard the story yet.. I am on a budget and time race... I bought the engine from a junk yard, 97 explorer 117k miles, supposedly. It was real gunked up with oil and I cleaned it pretty good. Cylinders all look good.
Today I opened up the rear main to replace the rear seal.... and I see this (See Below)...

Assuming this is not acceptable? I'm a little over my head here this is my first time inside an engine. So assuming the crank doesn't have scratches like that, can I just buy new Main and Rod bearings and slap it together? Maybe cam bearings too depending on how it looks. Maybe get the crank boiled and polished for $50. Grind+Polish is $150... Bleh...
The crank looked fine so far, which seems odd but good.
Any advice is appreciated.

General karthief · Oct 23, 2016

Did't think you needed to pull the main to replace the rear seal. Couldn't tell you about the bearing, sure someone will chime in.

TRIBUNAL · Oct 23, 2016

Yea you're probably right I just didn't see any other way to do it and kind of wanted to see what it looked like anyway.
I took the next main cap off, not as bad but still see some.. copper? crank still had no scratches.

mikestang63 · Oct 23, 2016

Those dont look that bad to me. DIrt from sitting and infrequent oil changes. Can you feel any of the scratches with your finget nail?
Since you have the pan off I'd

Replace the oil pump with a new Mellings unit
Replace the oil pump shaft with an ARP one
Replace the rear main seal with a Felpro and the stainless steel sleeve
Soak the oil piclkup and tube in some parts cleaner
spray oven cleaner on the inside of the oil pan
Pour a bottle of MMMO down each side of the heads, spray it on the rods and crank and let it run out

Boosted92LX · Oct 23, 2016

mikestang63 said:
Those dont look that bad to me. DIrt from sitting and infrequent oil changes. Can you feel any of the scratches with your finget nail?
Since you have the pan off I'd

Replace the oil pump with a new Mellings unit

Replace the oil pump shaft with an ARP one

Replace the rear main seal with a Felpro and the stainless steel sleeve

Soak the oil piclkup and tube in some parts cleaner

spray oven cleaner on the inside of the oil pan

Pour a bottle of MMMO down each side of the heads, spray it on the rods and crank and let it run out

Dude. Seriously? Are you joking???

@TRIBUNAL , I'm sorry to tell you man, your bearings are done. Anytime you see copper, that's BAD. It's worn allthe way thru the babbit matl. You need to completely overhaul that engine, and don't leave out cam bearings either, because your rebuilt engine will have crap for oil pressure if you do, and you'll have to tear it all back down to fix it. If the crank isn't scored up, you might be able to polish it up, but it'll most likely need to be turned. Tear it all down, take it to a machine shop. Have them check the bores to make sure they are still round enough to use, if not.. may as well get it bored. Hate to have to tell you this, but it is what it is man.

stykthyn · Oct 23, 2016

Gotta agree with boosted. You might get away with just new bearings. At this point I'd tear the whole thing down and see what the Cam bearings look like. Cross hatch I'm sure it's still good, but there's nothing worse than getting everything together and realizing that you have low oil pressure.

TRIBUNAL · Oct 23, 2016

I did pick up the oil pump and shaft, gotta order a new screen+pickup, have the marvel oil ready to go, I didn't get the sleeve...
The cylinders do look good no signs of ridge wear and hatch looks fine unlike the old engine.
I don't mind replacing all the bearings.
The Rear bearing did not pass the scratch test, you can feel it. I don't feel anything on the other one or anything on the crank but I will take the rod caps and main caps off tomorrow. maybe take the cam out on Tuesday. Hopefully everything's good on the crank.

stykthyn · Oct 23, 2016

At this point have a machine shop spec it out. A reputable shop for not much money will polish the crank and point you towards the proper bearings even if they don't do the install

TRIBUNAL · Oct 23, 2016

Should I be removing the pistons, crank, and cam before I bring it to a shop or leave it?

v8stang289 · Oct 23, 2016

^ what he said. Have a reputable shop check the crank. You might be able to get by with a polish and new bearings, but if the crank is too worn it will have to be turned. Better to know up front than to throw new bearings in it and have it fail catastrophically later.

stykthyn · Oct 23, 2016

Personally I would leave the pistons. If cylinder walls look good then they are fine. Just bring the crank in and get a second opinion. If it needs to be polished or ground then you will need different sized bearings.

RaggedGT · Oct 23, 2016

If you take it all apart, the machine shop can hot tank the block and get the rest of the funk outta it

General karthief · Oct 23, 2016

What fun are you guys, just stick it back together and run the tar out of it. Ain't no fun if it ain't broke!
Seriously, what they said, good advice.

TRIBUNAL · Oct 23, 2016

ok I'll call tomorrow and get a price on boiling it, I'd prefer that if its around 100. thanks guys I appreciate the bad news

a91what · Oct 23, 2016

When you get bearings buy Kings bearings they omit the copper in the bearing it's just steel backer and Babbitt

TRIBUNAL · Oct 23, 2016

Yea I think you told me that a while back, I was looking at these?
Assuming i don't need the crank altered
KGB-MB529SI

Boosted92LX · Oct 24, 2016

If you are tearing it down far enough to do bearings because they are worn out, the rings will be just as worn. Do you really want to spend money on an engine to install and have low compression and blow by? Rings are cheap. Like 40 bucks from summit. Change them out. Trust me.

Gearbanger 101 · Oct 24, 2016

If you're going to reuse the Pistons, make sure you match each one up to the cylinder you removed them from. They will have worn to that particular cylinder. And it wouldn't hurt to at least re-ring them. If the cam/crank bearings are that badly worn, the rings have taken their fair share too. And crossed hatched pattern be damned.....run a fresh hone through them for good measure.

TRIBUNAL · Oct 24, 2016

ok any suggestions on type of rings?
Thanks for the advice guys

TRIBUNAL · Oct 26, 2016

Update,
So I broke it all down and the crank looked good to me.
So I brought the crank down to S&K Speed Shop which is legendary on long island.
I was Shocked at the level of customer service. My experience with machine shops was older guys in the back room smoking cigars and cigarettes with attitude problems. I told them I'm in over my head and needed advice. I told him I was looking to bring the block down and have them install the cam bearings for me for $125 but I wanted to make sure I didn't need to have the crank cut before I ordered bearings. He was a bit insistent they use their bearings. He asked about my intents and recommended the E or F cam which they have used, lol, I know not going to happen. He also said they have a lot of used parts there that I could get which was a nice surprise.
Guy said the Crank looked good at first glance and didn't see any problems they would boil it and to call the next day and to talk to his boss, who was more knowledgeable on the fords.
Spoke to the boss and they said the crank looked good after it was boiled, said the oil.. somethings were a little sharp and should grind it a bit I think. When I told him supposedly the engine had 117k he said the somethings, maybe gully's, not sure, on the crank looked like it came out of an engine with 300k, but he didn't see any issues with it needing to be cut.
I talked to him about the bearings and he was also a bit dismissive of summit saying their prices are pretty compatible and he wanted to use his one piece bearings and laser weld them in which is apparently "better" and that the brand he uses was the standard for years in race engines. I don't remember the brand name, maybe Clevite but I'm not sure. Said to bring the heads down too so they can look everything over. He said it would be $175 for the boil, bearings, water plugs, and install. Seems good to me. I also brought up maybe looking for a mustang cam and he said he probably had some used so that's good enough for me.
Thoughts?

Bearings Look Bad? Advice :(

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wonder how much it would cost to ship you a pair

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It's only an inch or two. What's the big deal?

I want to measure mine. It doesn't look that tall.

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I want to measure mine. It doesn't look that tall.

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I want to measure mine. It doesn't look that tall.

Been here over a DECADE and still no CT

wonder how much it would cost to ship you a pair

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It's only an inch or two. What's the big deal?

Straight Outta Locash

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