Did I just ruin my crank?

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FomocoReformed

FomocoReformed

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Just put this together last night, sprayed the crank down with brake cleaner and let dry to ensure it was clean. Sprayed the cap and cleaned every bearing. Applied assembly lube. This morning I took the caps off so I could check them and do a final torque after rotating the engine a few times to get all the pistons in place. Found this on the #2 bearing. I don't know how the hell something could have gotten in there I pretty much white gloved it putting these together. Theres a no gouge on the crank but the pint sized little spec that caused this seems to be embedded in the crank now, you can see it in the pic on the upper left of the crank surface. Not really in the mood to have my forged crank that's already been turned down .10 wrecked by this little bastard. I am so damn pissed off right now I do not have any more money for this :mumum:

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Naaaa, pick out the little bastard or carefully knock the burr down with a flat file, polish out the journal with a strip of crokus cloth and buff bearing with green scratch pad. I mean what can you really do at this point? You sure its embedded in the crank? Bearings are designed to absorb these little facts of life..

BTW does your other shell have a oil notch inboard? Cant see it as an observer...
 
Ouch! I would get some fine crocus cloth and polish the crank journal. Put a new bearing on that rod and recheck it. It should be ok. It is either a small piece of grit from the oil hole in the crank or a nick from a rod bolt. Keep us posted. tmm
 
It will be fine! Do as the other guys said and don't lose a minute's sleep over it.
 
Took a close look and those little specks are damage to the crank, I don't know how but I checked around the full radius of the journal and theres a few more. It feels like something dug into the steel and nicked it. There's maybe 5 of them around the surface of the journal.
 
Hit/Tap the crank with rod bolts when putting them in?
 
You should have seen the bearings I pulled out of my engine. It still ran fine.
What you have there is nothing more than a minor set back, clean it up and run it.
 
crackedback said:
Hit/Tap the crank with rod bolts when putting them in?
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I think we have a winner. Did you use some rubber fuel line over the rod bolts, or the little boots made for that purpose? It is really easy to clang the rod bolts off the crank when installing them, especially if you are doing it by yourself.
The 383 in my Barracuda was built in the 80's and never run. I pulled it down, and they had banged the rod bolts off every single journal in there. It left raised burrs that scratched the bearings just like yours. I used a diamond file to knock them down, and all was well. Not nice, but no biggie.
 
Doesn't look too serious. At least you caught it before you fired it up. In high school we built chevy small blocks and we had a piece of steel shot get in one of the mains. We just had it reground and installed new bearings. It locked up right after start up.
 
Yeah I'm pretty sure I hit it with a rod bolt, that's what it looks like. Didn't occur to me to put something over them to keep them from hitting the crank...

I have some fine needle files maybe I could use those to knock it down?
 
Have to wonder if there is more filings in engine. I would pull it back apart and use dish washing soap and water with soft brush. Blow dry with air then lube everything and back together. A lot easier now on the stand then after its installed.
 
67cudafb said:
Have to wonder if there is more filings in engine. I would pull it back apart and use dish washing soap and water with soft brush. Blow dry with air then lube everything and back together. A lot easier now on the stand then after its installed.
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I agree. And like all the other posters said, you should be fine, but I would disassemble and clean again. Something may have been in the oil groove on the other half maybe?
 
Yes, you ruined it. It's shot to hell. Box it up and send it to me. I will properly dispose of it for you. ;)
 
StrokerScamp said:
Yes, you ruined it. It's shot to hell. Box it up and send it to me. I will properly dispose of it for you. ;)
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Sure thing, I'll get it ready :angel10:

I'll have to get some air in there to make sure there's nothing loose hanging around the oil passages, I had cleaned them out prior with brake cleaner. Just ordered a new bearing.
 
FomocoReformed said:
Sure thing, I'll get it ready :angel10:

I'll have to get some air in there to make sure there's nothing loose hanging around the oil passages, I had cleaned them out prior with brake cleaner. Just ordered a new bearing.
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Hell, I didn't even change the bearings on mine. I figure you guys pay extra for those fancy grooved race bearings, and I got them for free..
 
Think I could get away with not changing the bearings? I pulled the rest of the rod caps off and I nicked every crank journal to varying degrees, the pictured one is just the worst. All the grooves in the bearing's are deep enough to catch my finger nail on them and feel them. Rookie mistake I guess, can't believe i didn't think to put something over the rod bolts I didn't think the crank would get nicked that easily :banghead: :banghead::banghead:

I tried taking a honing stone to it and I'm having good success with that, knocking the little nicks down pretty good but I'm going to have to polish it back up when I'm done.
 
FomocoReformed said:
Think I could get away with not changing the bearings? I pulled the rest of the rod caps off and I nicked every crank journal to varying degrees, the pictured one is just the worst. All the grooves in the bearing's are deep enough to catch my finger nail on them and feel them. Rookie mistake I guess, can't believe i didn't think to put something over the rod bolts I didn't think the crank would get nicked that easily :banghead: :banghead::banghead:

I tried taking a honing stone to it and I'm having good success with that, knocking the little nicks down pretty good but I'm going to have to polish it back up when I'm done.
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Well, to me it looks like it just scratched off the very thin top layer of the soft bearing material. I just made sure there was no raised "hanger" on the bearings, and put them back in after. If you have pulled all the rod caps, it would be a lot easier to pull the crank and work on it. New bearings would be nice, but probably not necessary. Depends on your budget. I was out to prove a point when I put mine together, so don't take my word for it.
 
As everyone else has said, what you have isn't a major problem and can be fixed simply.

A guy I know did the same thing to his crank several years ago. He called me up and wanted to know if I could drop his crank off at the machine shop on Monday morning for him. When i asked why he told me he had bumps on his crank that were scarring the bearings. I went over to his place and discovered he had nicked the crank with rod bolts. (several journals) We pulled the crank, filed the bumps down with a point file, polished it up with some crocus cloth and put it back in. We took a very sharp pocket knife and scraped down some ridges on a couple of bearings that had been damaged and reassembled. (with some rod bolt protectors that time) He's still driving his pickup and its got over 130,000 miles on the rebuild.
 
Alright that's good to know. This is my first engine build so every little thing I mess up I've been freaking out about, the engine isn't going to be a high revving bumble bee anyway.

Now I just need to find somewhere around here that actually sells crocus cloth...
 
FomocoReformed said:
Alright that's good to know. This is my first engine build so every little thing I mess up I've been freaking out about, the engine isn't going to be a high revving bumble bee anyway.

Now I just need to find somewhere around here that actually sells crocus cloth...
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I've actully bought it in a plumbing supply before years ago, was used to clean copper pipe before sweating/soldering. Just make sure you oil/lube it while your polishing. Not sure if there is a specific grit, but i'd go fairly fine if you have a choice. Good luck, i think you'll be fine.
 
You've spent plenty of money up to this point on getting the parts and machining done. The journal is not a big deal, but if you've never done it, and dont have a micrometer to measure it, I'd have the shop polish it. It's cheap (maybe free if they feel sorry for you) and it's th eright way to do it. The bearing is toast. If it was in a running engine, yes, it might be fine. But you know it's fucked up. If I found it in a running engine I'd replace it and wonder where teh rest of the debri might be. BTW -use cleaning brushes to run through all the oil holes, and then blast the passages with brake clean if you have no sop air compressor. You came this far. Why cheap out on it following an unfortunate instance of rookie-dom?
 
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