Bill,I have an idea of what this may be. Something similar happened to the 454 in my 70 luckily my machine guy caught it. I used ARP main bolts, the oil pump ended up sitting on an angle b/c it was hitting the main bolt. I had to have the oil pump ground so that it would sit the way it is supposed to, The oil pump was pulling air through the system and chewed up the bearings. I sent the short block out to my machine guy and he caught the problem right away. He completly rebuilt the bottom end. The rotating assembly was balanced, rods were reground b/c TRW forgot to tell me that these particular rods were not compatible with TRW pistons. I have not had a problem with it since. Also make sure that the right balancer/flexplate are on it. Most 454's are externally balanced, although I have never seen an internally balanced 454. I used one of those $340 Fluidampr balancers and a TCI Flexplate
Tom
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Bill... I have heard of the oil pump problem before that was mentioned so I would look into that. I would also make very sure of your run out and clearences. Most times damage like that is either clearence issues or an outside problem from the tranny or damper. Good luck. Mikey
Tom and Mike,
I have one of those $340 Fluidampr balancers myself and a B&M flexplate. I used the stock main bolts so the ARP bolt issue didn't apply to me. Actually, oil pressure isn't a problem. The motor is idling warmed up at 60 psi and goes to 75 psi as soon as you hit the throttle.I had the motor apart once and replaced the rear main bearing. All the bearings looked good except for the rear thrust face of the rear main. The bearing surface itself isn't the problem. The thrust face is lubricated by what runs out of the main and oil pressure is no problem. The rear thrust face of the main bearing just erodes away. End play has gone from 7 thousandths to 13 thousandths in what amounts to 12 to 15 miles of driving.
Brad Waller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
My only positive thought is that this could be OK if this is still break in wear. I have seen this exact "pearlescent" oil in a brand new engine. It has been a while, but when we bought my wife's Blazer new, I changed the oil a few times in the first thousand miles. I know the first time it did look like what you described, and maybe even for the first few changes as everything "bedded in". Perhaps you have been sensitized to looking for a problem, and this time there really is none. If your oil pressure is still good, then perhaps this is normal for a motor that is still breaking in? Ask your machine shop about this. You could also send the oil out for analysis and see exactly what the contaminants are in the oil. This can tell you if it is bearing material, iron, steel, etc. Brad Waller ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Brad,
I thought I might be sensitized to looking for a problem myself. I've seen what you are talking about myself and if the amount of material I found in the oil filter had been minimal I would just change the oil again and continue to drive the car, but it was a lot. I checked before and after with a dial indicator and my crankshaft end play had increased another 2 thousandths in 5 miles of driving.I've been to my machine shop about this on several occasions and they are as stumped as I am at this point.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Maybe you bought new bolts for yopu flex plate? they sell flex bolts that are to long
I used new bolts but I checked them to make sure they weren't too long.
Robert Coyle [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Hi Bill Which side of the main thrust bering is tour up the front back or both??Any chance the flexplate is on reversed ?? Bob C
The rear of the thrust bearing is torn up. I've double, triple. quadruple checked to make sure the flex plate is installed right too.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
did you stud the bottom end of motor?
Skip 68SCBB
Nope, no studs. I used stock main bolts.
Doug Fugere <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: sometimes a guy can get his tranny together and put it on the motor, and the torque converter can look like it is in all the way, if you can get your fingers behind the torque converter , it is not in all the way. This might be off but hey double check that the torque converter is in all the way . Your fingers should not be able to get behind it. Advice from the old man to me .Take care
I checked the torque converter with a straight edge across the front of the transmission. I talked to TCI where I got the torque converter and they told me it should set back between 1 1/16 to 1 1/4 inch. Mine was 1 1/16.
I've decided that since the end play is greater than what I feel is acceptable I'm going to pull the motor and replace the bearing and while I'm at it I'm going to check out the rest of the motor again. I have a feeling that now that the wear has gotten to this point the thrust face of the bearing is probably in pretty sad shape. My feeling is that even if the problem has been solved the bearing will continue to wear because it's galled. I'm also going to check the flange on the crank to make sure again that there is no burr or runout causing the problem.
Thanks to everyone who replied. I'll let everyone know what I find, if I find anything.
Bill "still stumped" Vander Werf
