What causing a spun bearing?
What causing a spun bearing?
Registered User
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 742
From: Owego, New York
Did you recently put that cam in the car? Also did you do it yourself? Many people have that problem when they do their own cam swap by getting a lot of junk in the lifter valley and whatnot and not cleaning it properly. My guess is thats what happened assuming you installed it recently and did it yourself.
I just did a cam swap myself with the 224/230 and thats what I am worried about as well. I just put the car back on the road today so we will see how it handles it.
Good luck
I just did a cam swap myself with the 224/230 and thats what I am worried about as well. I just put the car back on the road today so we will see how it handles it.
Good luck
Registered User
Joined: Dec 1969
Posts: 27,725
From: Little Rock, AR
Wear and the resulting lower oil pressure are the main factors, IMO. Add to that, the higher rpms that people push after installing a cam and you have several factors not working in your favor.
Registered User
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 2,724
From: Oklahoma where trees are made of wood.
Detonation is a big factor is a spun bearing alot of times. A bearing maintains a crush in the rod and detonation acts like a hammer on them and beats them out of their crush allowing one side to slip inder the other half. Also lack of oil will make the opil bearior between the crank and the bearing disapear and actually somewhat weld the bearings to the crank making them seperate from the rod.
Registered User
Joined: Dec 1969
Posts: 27,725
From: Little Rock, AR
Originally posted by mineralwater
rebuild. see sig.
rebuild. see sig.
Basically, true. A look at all the bearings and clearances checked would tell you what life is left. All cam bearings cannot be replaced while the engine is in the car, though you could struggle through replacing all the main and rod bearings (don't think I would ever want to do it that way, though). By the time you do all that, it's pretty much a "rebuild".
Registered User
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 278
From: Corona/LA
Originally posted by shoebox
By the time you do all that, it's pretty much a "rebuild".
By the time you do all that, it's pretty much a "rebuild".
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 561
From: Dallas, Tx.
so if i replace all the bearings and rods and a new oil pump and have the cranked turned if it needs to, ill be ok? and what do you mean by what life is left shoebox? i mean if i replace all that stuff, i could still have a problem?
-Mike
-Mike
Moderator
Joined: Dec 1969
Posts: 10,745
From: Buffalo, New York
The causes of a spun bearing are either a lubrication failure or overloading the bearing. The causes of lubrication failure are fairly obvious and include excessive wear on the engine leading to low oil pressure, oil level too low, oil pump fails (often a broken oil pump driveshaft), pickup falls off, etc. Overloading the bearing may be caused by detonation as well as simply making more hp then the bearings are big enough to support (unusual in a street or street/strip motor for sure).
You don't describe if you are talking about a rod bearing failure or a main bearing, but in either case the advice you are getting, that it's time to rebuild, is correct. Just replacing the damaged bearing is an invitation for the problem to reoccur, since has not been identified or remedied in the first place. It's like if a fuse keeps blowing, you need to fix the short and not just continue to replace fuses.
Rich Krause
You don't describe if you are talking about a rod bearing failure or a main bearing, but in either case the advice you are getting, that it's time to rebuild, is correct. Just replacing the damaged bearing is an invitation for the problem to reoccur, since has not been identified or remedied in the first place. It's like if a fuse keeps blowing, you need to fix the short and not just continue to replace fuses.
Rich Krause
