'87 LeSabre - oversized rod bearing still too small

[TrueLyFE]

Hello,

My aunt has been working on my car since I don't know what to do And I asked here before about a noise, and was told it was a rod bearing.

This turned out to be true, one is quite loose. She tried repairing with a .020 oversized bearing, which quieted it down for a couple of days, then the noise returned.

Took it apart, and it was as before - rod bearing destroyed.

Tried replacing it with an even larger one, and after she tightened it, it still was loose. She said she even tried another end cap as a comparison (off of the old engine that had a destroyed timing gear), and it did the same thing.

Is something just shot? We were planning on rebuilding the other engine, but if we could get this car going on longer with the one it has before doing yet another engine swap, that'd be a good thing.

[LeSabre97mint]

Originally Posted by TrueLyFE

Hello,

My aunt has been working on my car since I don't know what to do And I asked here before about a noise, and was told it was a rod bearing.

This turned out to be true, one is quite loose. She tried repairing with a .020 oversized bearing, which quieted it down for a couple of days, then the noise returned.

Took it apart, and it was as before - rod bearing destroyed.

Tried replacing it with an even larger one, and after she tightened it, it still was loose. She said she even tried another end cap as a comparison (off of the old engine that had a destroyed timing gear), and it did the same thing.

Is something just shot? We were planning on rebuilding the other engine, but if we could get this car going on longer with the one it has before doing yet another engine swap, that'd be a good thing.

If the rod has been making noise for a while it has warn down the crank and the rod it's self may of been enlarged. Both the rod and crank may be out of round. Also, a rough crank will take out a bearing in a hurry.

I replaced the rod bearings on my 95 Windstar 3.8 when I had the heads off. Before I took it apart I heard a slight lower end noise at start up. After oil psi built up the noise went away. I checked the bearings and just about all of them had warn through the bearing surface to show copper. # 6 was really bad and I feel that this is the one that I heard. This engine has aprox. 175,000 miles on it at the time. Now I don't hear the lower end noise at start up.

I would get a used engine. A couple hundred $$'s and you're done. Unless the car is mint.... I'd stick a used one in.

Regards

Dan

[TrueLyFE]

Worst part is...this is a used engine, that was supposedly perfect. Right. Luckily my aunt did it, so a dinner paid for it, as opposed to a lot of money. And she enjoyed doing it.

We are going to rebuild the old engine that was in it. It was in pretty good shape, even with many miles, just the timing gear shattered. Figure, the money put in to rebuild it will be almost like a rebirth for it, should be able to get plenty of miles out of it, less any other problems.

I was just seeing if there was really anything we could do to prolong the life of this one until I can get the money together to work on the old engine (not much income). She came to the conclusion that the crank was probably shot too, and the one from the old engine was in excellent shape... might just have to hurry up with the rebuild