Bad Bearings :(

[BattelWagun]

The other day I was taking a drive from Chicago to South Haven when I heard a loud bang, lost all power, and all oil pressure. Freaking out in terror, I put it in neutral (to avoid any more damage), and pulled off to the side of the road while i still had some vacuum in my brakes left. Well I was pretty sure I had spun a bearing or something so I had it towed to a shop near hammond to have it looked at. Here's the damage: My camshaft has developed MASSIVE tolerances in the bearings themselves and has shifted about 1/8 of an inch forward in the block. Due to that, the distributor gear wore very quickly (when I had it out last summer it was perfect), and shattered a few teeth, leading to an end in my road trip... (Ive had the P1345 code for about a month before that too)

Im looking for any input such as to how this could happen in less than a year..? Always had 3K oil changes. I saw nothing in the oil up to this point. It ran like a top up until the very last minute. It only has 135K on it... I mean, this is like 250k worth of wear! On a well cared for engine! Also, i had a new dzzy installed, it runs like a top once again, no codes etc. Lemme know if you want to see photos of the gear, its pretty bad...

 

[SunlitComet]

pics and i will study them for you.

 

[Phone Man]

OMG that efin sucks man. What about the bottom end?

 

[BattelWagun]

The bottom end is great (knock on wood)! No knocks, taps, oil pressure still at 20lbs at idle... Thats why I'm so confused. Pictures to come when I get home tonight.

 

[KPOD]

Just had to have a complete rebuild done on mine at only 155k, it happens sometimes

 

[BattelWagun]

My question is this though, how can you tell all that from only removing the distributor? I've checked the truck, and nothing else was even touched. Not even the oil pan! Not to mention the mechanic didn't even change the oil for me (which he knew had bits of dist. gear in it, and most likely bearing shavings... I drained all the oil from the truck (didn't pull the pan) and I didn't really see any debris in there, just the black metal from the distributor, no shiny metal/copper from bearings. Im starting to wonder if he's trig to take me for a ride...

Just to be safe though, I put in 4.5 qts. of rotella t (has a little more zinc in it) and .5 qts of lucas oil stabilizer, along with a k&n wrench off filter. I will be changing it out in a week or so. And yes, I will get pictures of the distributor gear tonight.

 

[SunlitComet]

by looking down the dizzy hole and seeing the camshaft has moved is a way.

 

[Phone Man]

Get a magnets and put it on the filter and one by the drain plug. BTW was the distributor a chinese made one?

 

[BattelWagun]

Alright, so I took some good pictures of the bad distributor gear today. And to answer Phone man's question: No, it was not a Chinese one, it was the original distributor that came with the truck. Heres the carnage:


DSC04581 by CenzoBear, on Flickr

DSC04582 by CenzoBear, on Flickr

DSC04583 by CenzoBear, on Flickr

DSC04584 by CenzoBear, on Flickr

DSC04585 by CenzoBear, on Flickr

You can see how the camshaft gear isn't making full on contact with the distributor gear. It's only meshing part way. I think that's why the gear is notched so badly. You can also see where the gear failed and pretty much ground all the way through. Tell me what you guys think.

 

[SunlitComet]

dose the dizzy shaft have much vertical movement in the main body

 

[BattelWagun]

Yeah, Its got about 1/4" of movement up and down if I pull on the gear. Is that no bueno?

 

[Phone Man]

Holy F! How the F can that happen?

 

[BattelWagun]

Holy F! How the F can that happen?

I guess it's just one of those weird situations... Only 135k on the motor, decently taken care of... Just a freak breakdown I guess.

 

[noJeepshere]

Holy F! How the F can that happen?

It's this little thing called sh*t, it happens from time to time.

When I was young we used to own a 1982 Chevy Suburban, bright red with chrome trim and gold wheels with the chrome trim rings and dark tinted windows and air ride in the back. Nice ride. The original engine crapped out and dad put some good coin into it rebuilding it, stroker crank, lopey cam, ported and polished heads, high compression pistons, the works. It went like gravy for 6 years and 50,000 miles, until one night, just outside of Pendelton, OR, there was a loud clang and the engine started running rough and was way down on power, and the alternator died.

Sh*t. Backed up 2 miles to the truck stop that is now a huge deal with a casino and Peterbuilt dealer. Pop the hood, engine sounds like crap and the drive belt is not moving. ? So we camp out for the night under a light and the next day get it towed into the local shop where the mechanic discovered that fancy stroker crank split in two, likely from a hairline fracture that somehow made it past quality control.

Long story short, we rented a car, stuffed a family of 6 into it, and continued our trip. Come back a week later and all is good, and that rebuilt motor ran for another 100,000 miles before we sold it with 227,000 on the clock.

Our family knows how to put miles on cars...

 

[BattelWagun]

^ holy crap! Well hey, at least the crank didnt cause too much damage to the block in that situation. I would love to have an old school 'burban...

dose the dizzy shaft have much vertical movement in the main body

Would this be a bad thing? its got about 1/4"

 

[milehighaz]

My new block had 13k miles on it, and I had the EXACT thing happen just two weeks ago. Don't have pics, but the gear was messed up...sad thing is, I never found the metal. Drained oil right away, and nothing..didn't cut the filter tho.

I was getting cam position sensor codes a couple weeks earlier and went away. Should have looked further when we saw those codes.

It was the original distributor though with 170k miles.

 

[SunlitComet]

Not really the only thing I can think off at the moment is that maybe a lack of oil caused the cam to eat up the plate of front that holds it in and as a result of the angle cut of gears kept trying to ride off the dizzy gear and push itself away.

 

[BattelWagun]

Not really the only thing I can think off at the moment is that maybe a lack of oil caused the cam to eat up the plate of front that holds it in and as a result of the angle cut of gears kept trying to ride off the dizzy gear and push itself away.

Seems pretty logical. Thats a ton of work to repair though...