540 Issues
 

I did a leakdown on my motors coming out of my boat...it's been all downhill since then.

Guess how many hours are on these bearings?

Mains

Rod Bearings

I'm gonna guess you were hoping for quite a few more than you have on it before you got this deep

They look like they have 300+ hours on them, I freshen my blown 540 every 120 or so hours and they have always looked like new (h series running on a 4340 crank that is permatoughed ) running about .0028-.003 main and .0033-.0035 main or so clearence, Smitty

Doesn't look good, any gas in the oil ?

ya running too rich will do that

I never had gas in the oil. They never ran really rich either. I'll add some pictures of the cranks in the morning.

Any chance of detination ?

they dont look that bad to me,im not good at guessing,how many hrs do they have,and what brand and weight oil do you use?

i forgot to ask,what brand are the bearings?

i would suggest those bearings are not "mechanically damaged" i would suggest that they are prematurely " worn out " by virtue if an extremely bad assembly. it would appear to me that the clearences were squeaky tight and allowed no oil film to speak of and generated very very high local temps. i see no evidence of them being pounded or extruded and they are all exactly the same. the fact that they are all the same points to some machining error like a bad align bore that the assembler never recognized

in my opinion , the person that built this assy simply assembled the kit as they got it with no regard to clearences.

it certainly could have been a oil pan full of fuel but if you say no then thats that. this is simple lack of lubrication throughout the entire system... not some local random failure.

Correct these aren't "damaged" they are prematurely worn out. They are clevite bearings, always 20w-50 oil, WIX filters with the exception of the first one from the builder being a Fram, and multiple oil changes in the total of 20 HOURS of use.

I did not build these in my garage. They were built by one of Powerboat's top 10 engine builders.

20 HOURS!

Here is the crank. Notice anything not normal?

How are you routing the oil, any by passes blocked?

20 hours!
Ouch!

i did not realize the engine had 20 hrs,i thaught it had a lot more,the journal that is blueing tells the story,not enough clearance,either bearing clearance,or rod side clearance.very lucky it did not spin a bearing.

after looking at the crank,i am very suprised,did gellner assemble this engine?

well... 20 hours is a long time in the world of new motors. a motor wth bad clearences or poorly assembled will look like this at 20 minutes. at 20 hrs i would have to think that something else is going on. this really looks like a fundemental lubrication issue. low oil pressure caused by extremely high oil temps. or fuel diluted oil or something along those lines. without fixing anything, i think i would get a fresh set of bearings and check the clearences as they exist right now with proper measuring tools... not plastigage. that info is going to give you real direction. if those numbers are good, then your oil system killed your motor somehow... either hi temps or low press. if those numbers are bad, i think imight have to call my engine builder and ask him why that is...

It is a Gen IV block, Teague billet filter mount - no bypass to be blocked.
It is really hard to capture in a picture, (glares and angles) make it hard to see what the naked eye sees.

The journals on the crank aren't burned up - couple more pictures added.

This isn't just one motor - both motors are exactly the same.

It is most definitley an oiling issue, caused by a modification to the crank.
Did anyone notice the troughs ground into the journals at the oiling holes?

I didn't assemble these, certainly didn't pay for plasti-gage assembly.

The real problem is this isn't where it ends. I am working on more pictures to show what else was found.

I noticed them, and from what I recall, the oil holes need to have the edges relieved back, but in an circular pattern not too much larger than the hole itself.

#12 sure looks blue to me,it appears as if the oil could not exit the journal,so the oil boils between the journal and the bearing.am i seing it wrong,or is the journal turning blue?

not knowing the history of these engines,makes me need to ask some questions,were the rods rebuilt or replaced at the time of build,or was this a completly new build?

The double chamfer combined with the full grooved mains is likely what killed it.. Here's some pics of various Callies, Manley, and GM for reference.

The one jornal at themain is very slightly discolored, the picture makes it look worse, but you are right.

The rods were brand new. The only thing reused at the time of the build was the block, and the crank...that was modified.

The last 3 pics are of the new crank and how the oiling hole should look.

Who built them?

Pictures of lifters that came out.

more lifters and cams

More cams - you have to look close to see what it going on.

Just a couple more

Again 20 HOURS

i can understand the question about the reliefs at the oil holes but i have seen that work 8 ways from sunday on 50 different motors and i have never seen it as an issue... and realistically why would it be ? all it does is reduce the surface area a bit right there but in the real world, if the cleareances are correct and the pressure is correct then the bearing doesn't even notice there is a low spot there because it is hydraulically solid. i have seen ford V-8s with a fully radius grove there run 24 hrs at 7500 rpm and the bearings come out perfect. so in a word , no... i don't think the oil reliefs are an issue. and if gellner built those motors, he is clearly a knowledgeable guy and wouldn't do something fundementally wrong . i still say that you need to check the clearences mechanically with a dial bore gage and micrometer. get some real answers and data and then call us back.

Does the oil smell burnt?

Seeing the cam and lifters it looks like there was a lack of a proper lubrication boundary/layer of oil, like the oil got real hot or pressure/flow at the actual mains/rods and cams was inadequate. As far as the oil reliefs, they look goofy, I wouldn't have ground them that way but its possible your engine builder has done it that way for years on other engines and it has worked. There wasn't a sale on recycled/reclaimed oil at advance auto was there??? (just kidding). I built a aluminum rodded motor for a jet boat I used to have years ago with no oil cooler and when my oil pressure dropped to 3 psi hot at idle and 20 lbs at wot brecause of the con rods growing from heat (didn't know that at the time I did it)my bearings and crank looked similar or worse in 20 hours, yours looks simila. What kind of oil pressure did you have hot at idle?? did you have a oil temp gauge, I would think your oil was 300+ degreees and not able to hardly carry any pressure hot if I was guessing.

Might want to send the oil out and have it tested.

Were they built by Gellner Marine?

you can send the oil to your bookie and he can tell you that its full of bronze, copper , steel, cast iron, aluminum and various other trace metals.

no analysis required. just reasonable eyesight

i think you are absolutely right about the oil temp. the question will be why ? that funny about the al rod thing. an F1 motor is essentially seized at room temp and has to be preheated to a 120 degress just to rotate and my DFL cosworths were similar.

Since I have a motor built by the same company (Im pretty sure) im going to keep a eye on this thread. Mine was done around the same time if I remember correctly.

My bookie quit the engine building business, and since I lost my glasses I can't see if there was some sort of contaminant that may have caused the oil to break down.

i dont know what brand of parts were used,but i do know that most of the time,YOU GET WHAT YOU PAID FOR.i thihk if you check rod side clearance,you wont like what you find.