I spun the tires uphill for about 20 feet because I had my friend and his wife in the car and I'd been working on it a lot in their garage, so I felt like I owed it to them to show them what it would do. It felt fine when I parked it in their driveway but when I left the engine felt funny so I checked the gauges and it had low pressure. I had to drive it all the way home though because it was late. There are no major leaks and the oil level a little low but is well within the operating range. I'll be changing the oil pump today or tomorrow because I expect that's the problem. But does anyone know if that burnout up a steep hill at high rpm's would possibly cause the oil pump to quit?

 

It's a bit far fetched and I'm going to get flamed for this but.... Possibly you have a rear main leak?

 

the LT1 oil pickups in the pan are prone to come off

 

Thanks. I started it after I wrote that post and the pressure looked fine in the driveway so I took it out for a drive and after it got warmed up the pressure went down like it had been before. It sits just above the red around idle to 2000 and only gets close to the 1/4 mark when I spin it to ~3300.
I started it again tonight and the pressure looked fine and I took the valve cover off and when I revved it, it spit some oil out like I assume it should. The rockers didn't look dry or cooked that I could see, they had some oil on them. But I didn't bother taking the car out again because I knew it was only pretending to be alright and would break again after I got it on the road.
I'm in school so I don't have much free time and my tool selection is laughable. I got a decent floor jack today at Sears and hauled it back on the bus. I got under it today but after looking at some of those bolts I'd have to get to to get the oil pan off I realized that I won't be doing anything until I've finally gotten a decent tool set.

 

Got a stock oil pan? Possibly with no baffle? Pickup 1/2" of the floor of the pan?
Quite possibly the problem.

 

After oil reaches operating temperature you are to have at least 10psi per 1000rpm.
It's quite possible you have spun a bearing. If your oil level is fine and are sitting on level ground and your pressure is still low then it would not be your pickup. Burning out going uphill could have cavitated the pump.

 

I've been working on it for about the last three Saturdays. I got the last main cap off a couple hours ago. (I finally had to drop the crossmember to get the pan out.) But the 3rd back from front and 4th back bearings look like they're toast. And none of the crank journals look or feel too good. Especially the two matching the gone bearings. Also I found a piece of oil crud completely blocking the oil passage in the rear cap. Each main cap bolt I took out was covered with crud thicker than I've ever seen on a bolt before. The engine has 120k and nothing down there's ever been off. This isn't really the time I had wanted to pull everything. I can feel the groove/scratches in the crank with my finger, no need to test with fingernail because they're fairly substantial groove/scratches.
Do you think it would be alright to put in new bearings, new oil pump, and let it rip? Or do I really need to take the crank to a machine shop or buy a new crank? My computer is broken too which is hard to live without in school so I have to buy a new one and my loan money is drying up quick. I know every post I write is an essay but I have a lot to say and to ask. And the library is closing so I can't see replies until tomorrow.

 

IMO you are going to have to rip that thing out. If you chewed up the bearings, the crank is coming out for sure, needs to be turned and will need to be polished. new crank bearings are obvious. the rod bearings will need to be replaced as well, especially if you already have the crank out. while your at it, i'd suggest having new cam bearings and having the block checked/cleaned since you have pumped alot of metal through it. This is not going to be cheap, and if you try to just fix the crank bearings, i'll bet you a decent amount of money that your symptoms return very soon after you finish it.

I've been in your exact situation, it sucks.

 

Well...I think I'll pull the crank out then, but the rest of the engine will have to stay where it is. I don't have the money now for the rest of it. I plan on supercharging it later this year so all that stuff will have to be done then.
Do you have to take the transmission (M6) out to get the crank out? Do you need special tools for that if so?

 

Yes, you will definitly have to pull the transmission and the flywheel. I am wishing you luck, but I will never agree that what your doing will last any real abuse or time. To each their own, good luck my friend. Dont hesitate to PM me if you need a quick question answered, as I have been though all this before.

 

Success. I talked to my Dad a few weeks ago and he said that if the crank isn't scratched too bad you can polish it up without taking it out of the car. So I bought the file and sandpaper and have been doing just that for the last three weeks or so (I don't have much free time; the whole job could be done in about 30 hours probably.) I polished all the main journals and put in new main and rod bearings and drove it for the first time today. Everything is fine and the oil pressure is higher than I've ever seen it. It sits at the 1/2 point now instead of the 1/4 point. Most likely, even though I took about a millimeter or maybe less off the journals, the new bearings made up for that and then some. I put in a new oil pump too.
Of course the first thing I wanted to do was lay 30 feet of rubber up the driveway and the street, but I hear the break in period for new bearings is about 1000 miles. So that sucks, but I'll probably take it 300 miles to Manassas or the beach to break them in so I can start tearing it up.
I decided during the first of the 6 or so different days I've been working on it that I want revenge on it for this, so it's going to see 6000 rpms probably every time I drive it now.

 

I think I should add that my bearing weren't spun that bad. I don't know a lot about it but apparently there are a lot of different degrees to which you can have them go out on you. Mine came out easily (sometimes I hear they can actually be welded to the crank or cap or block), they were all in place (not rotated out of place at all), and looking at the ones that spun there didn't look to be a whole lot of metal scraped off of them. I had assumed before I started polishing that probably most of the metal had already made it to the filter or the pan, or had already done whatever damage it was going to do. Time will tell, but I think everything will be fine for many miles to come. My Dad said he has done the same job to a lot of cars and they were fine.

 

Wait...did you say that you "Polished" your crank......(BTW, a millimeter is huge in engine terms)

while it was in the car and motor.....


And that you used sandpaper.......

and a file?



I'm speechless, where to start? umm......

 

Yea, I was told to take out the high spots with the file then use about 220 then finish with about 320 sandpaper. The file didn't work very well for me so I did almost all of it with sandpaper. I started with 150 then 220 then 320. 320 is like what you would use to finish furniture and the journals ended up very smooth. I backed the sandpaper with duck tape so it wouldn't tear, cut it the same width as the bearings, then pushed it up through where the top bearing was and pulled back and forth, then turned the crank and repeated. I probably took off less than a millimeter, but again I expect whatever I did take off was made up for by the new bearings.
We'll see how things turn out. There's probably still a little bit of metal in there and the journals aren't perfect, but **** on it, it's on the road, the oil pressure is fine, I didn't spend much on it, and I think it'll be alright for a good while to come.

 

Wow I have heard some DIY jobs but crnk polishing in the car is a new one to me, Glad it worked out for ya, seems like the ones that "should never run" are the ones that won't die.