98 buick lesabre 3800 (k) engine

[Jrs3800]

Its very hard to read into people on the net, and sometimes hard to convey exactly what they are saying.. LOL.. Thats the bad part about the net and posting on forums..

Its rare for any 3800 to damage a wrist pin, its almost unheard of... Can it happen?... Sure its always possible, but uncommon... The L36 and L67 both use a floating wrist pin design... More than most I have seen 3800's spin rod bearings, this is usually after the oil has been contaminated with Coolant( Dex especially ), The bearings become pitted and its all downhill from that point...

Oil pump failures are also very uncommon on the 3800's... If a Pump is in good shape upon inspection I would reuse it in a rebuild... But with the inspection any scoring or scaring in the timing cover would cause me to replace the timing cover and pump..

I have my Old L36 sitting waiting for the day I build it.. Never had any oil pressure issues with it... Always had great oil pressure.. Didn't even have a wrist pin issue... I do think I was getting ready to pop the motor tho, Cylinder 4 has some massive piston to bore issues, Sounded a lot like bad piston slap when I pulled it..

In any event the real way to know what the oil pressure is would be the mechanical gauge..

Cman I agree... Fram oil filters = Skull with crossbones here

[TheBobsHere]

the OP is noticing things that he has never payed attention to before the rebuild. People tend to over concern themselves when the fix something becuase you want everthing to be right.

Ain't that the truth lol.

Although I know the OP is probably gone by now, I just like to answer peoples questions about how I get to my seemingly assumptive conclusions. I did professional level tech help and field service for a long long time and found sometimes you just need to use the powers of deduction and assume certain things in the lack of real info to get the job done. Am I right every time no but more than often , yes.

[TheBobsHere]

"More than most I have seen 3800's spin rod bearings" GM has had this problem for as long as I can remember. More than once I've gotten into a GM car and got on the gas to hear Knock knock knock knock. Hey someones at the door, no wait it's the rod bearing.
Never threw a bearing in a ford, blown a piston out the side of the engine, but never threw a bearing.

[Jrs3800]

Originally Posted by TheBobsHere

"More than most I have seen 3800's spin rod bearings" GM has had this problem for as long as I can remember. More than once I've gotten into a GM car and got on the gas to hear Knock knock knock knock. Hey someones at the door, no wait it's the rod bearing.
Never threw a bearing in a ford, blown a piston out the side of the engine, but never threw a bearing.

100% True... I can't count how many 3800's I have seen spin a rod bearing.. Seems to be common place with high mileage or an intake gasket rupture allowing coolant into the oil.. Had a 3800 L27 start knocking... 20-50 got me a few more months in this Florida climate.. An L36 dropped oil pressure on me and tanked the #4 rod bearing.. Funny the other L36 has a cylinder #4 problem, but not a rod bearing..

And not long ago we yanked a 3.8 Split Port from a Mustang... Rod through the oil pan.. Amazingly tho the bearings looked like new at almost 150,000 Miles..