# S14 Bearing Pics



## Jetfire (Jun 20, 2002)

http://www.blairlee.com/m3files/bearings/index.html

I'm not quite done with the procedure. The new bearings are all in, but the oil pans have not yet been reinstalled.

No chunks were found in the lower oil pan, and on first inspection nothing looked seriously wrong with the conrods.

Bearings on cylinders 1, 2, and 3 were all in reasonably good shape. Crank journals for those cylinders are also nice and shiny. Bearing clearance (measured with plastigage) was acceptable.

Bearings on cylinder 4 were not fractured, but they're definitely trashed. Down to the copper on almost the entire inner surface. Crank journal is not mirror smooth; some scoring can be felt with my fingernail. Plastigage shows that roughly half of the journal has .001" to .0015" clearance, but the scored side is closer to .002". Not great news. 

I'm not experienced in these matters. Is my crank now toast? I can't imagine that it will last all that long. In the short term, I think the new bearings will keep the engine going...but I wouldn't trust the bearings to hold up past this season. And of course, any metal flakes from disintegrating bearings have the chance of getting past the filter and into the engine. Hasn't happened yet but you never know. Any expert opinions on this matter?


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## bren (Jul 1, 2002)

At least they didn' t look like this:










Although I don't think you would be in a much different place if they had....


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## Jetfire (Jun 20, 2002)

Preliminary replies to my posts on other mailing lists suggest that my other bearings were pretty much toast as well. The bearings should really have NO wear on them at all. They're supposed to be separated from the crank by a film of oil, so ideally there should be no contact whatsoever. And the journal on #4 is definitely in bad shape. :banghead:


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## JST (Dec 19, 2001)

Jetfire said:


> *Preliminary replies to my posts on other mailing lists suggest that my other bearings were pretty much toast as well. The bearings should really have NO wear on them at all. They're supposed to be separated from the crank by a film of oil, so ideally there should be no contact whatsoever. And the journal on #4 is definitely in bad shape. :banghead: *


Sorry to hear that. What's the likely cause? And does that mean you'll need a new block?


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## Jetfire (Jun 20, 2002)

JST said:


> *Sorry to hear that. What's the likely cause? And does that mean you'll need a new block? *


I don't know the cause yet. Some amount of bearing wear is not unusual with these engines, but I certainly wouldn't expect to have the bearings down to the copper at only 82000 miles. I'll look through the vehicle service history to see if there are any clues; the car was babied for at least the last seven years and probably for its entire life, so I don't think it's related to hard driving. It's possibly related to a lack of maintenance, perhaps due to mileage-based service instead of time-based service. But that's all conjecture at this point; I honestly have no idea what might have caused it.

At this point, the crank will have to be replaced in order to prevent the bearings from dying quickly again. That will require engine removal. The connecting rods will have to be inspected to determine whether any of them are out of round; I wouldn't be surprised to see that #4 was pounded out from all of that contact.

In the short term, however, I plan to button up the car again and drive it a bit longer. Maybe an S14 with spun bearings can be bought for cheap, along with an engine stand. Hmm...


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## ·clyde· (Dec 26, 2001)

Uh oh. 

Maybe we should have just left that bolt on and not learned of this until total failure? 

I was really hoping that nothing major would turn up


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## Jetfire (Jun 20, 2002)

[email protected] said:


> *Uh oh.
> 
> Maybe we should have just left that bolt on and not learned of this until total failure?
> 
> I was really hoping that nothing major would turn up  *


That certainly would have saved me another eight hours of my time. 

Not sure what I'm going to do now. I kind of like the "drive it now, find an S14 on the side" approach, but I wonder just how long I will have before the bearings go bye bye again. I think, if this had been caught earlier, it would have been easily repaired just with the bearings. But we're talking a couple of thousand miles, not 100.


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## Kaz (Dec 21, 2001)

I'm far from an expert in the S14, but I know the one thing that may be related to this could be oil starvation down in the crank area. You probably already know this but a baffle is a very popular addon, as the S14 is really prone to oil climbing the block in long turns. This problem is worse, naturally, if the oil happens to be low. 82k mi does sound a bit low for bearing failure, though. My friend's 2nd car had a preventative bearing replacement recently and it has 150k+ mi on it. I think it might be a good idea, if you end up deciding not to replace the crank, to have it checked VERY carefully for trueness at every journal. The wear being different across the surface of #4 might mean something...


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## Jetfire (Jun 20, 2002)

Kaz said:


> *I'm far from an expert in the S14, but I know the one thing that may be related to this could be oil starvation down in the crank area. You probably already know this but a baffle is a very popular addon, as the S14 is really prone to oil climbing the block in long turns. This problem is worse, naturally, if the oil happens to be low. 82k mi does sound a bit low for bearing failure, though. My friend's 2nd car had a preventative bearing replacement recently and it has 150k+ mi on it. I think it might be a good idea, if you end up deciding not to replace the crank, to have it checked VERY carefully for trueness at every journal. The wear being different across the surface of #4 might mean something... *


The car has had a baffle for some time now, and the oil starvation issue really becomes a problem at sustained hard right turns. The way the car was driven in the past leads me to believe that the bearings didn't die from that particular form of starvation.

I did notice, however, that the electrode on spark plug #4 is already starting to turn white. This is a sign of very high combustion temps, I believe, which is a possible sign of running lean and detonation. It's possible that there's an intake gasket leak somewhere, which would cause detonation in that cylinder, which would then really stress the bearings and crank. The PO did mention a "pinging" sound at lower revs, so perhaps this is the real problem.


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## Kaz (Dec 21, 2001)

Jetfire said:


> *
> I did notice, however, that the electrode on spark plug #4 is already starting to turn white. This is a sign of very high combustion temps, I believe, which is a possible sign of running lean and detonation. It's possible that there's an intake gasket leak somewhere, which would cause detonation in that cylinder, which would then really stress the bearings and crank. The PO did mention a "pinging" sound at lower revs, so perhaps this is the real problem. *


Gee, why didn't you mention this before?  You're right, this could definitely be a sign of something else on the top end. But top end problems are... well, top end problems. Do you really want to start into that and discover something else? I'd say it might be safer/easier/cheaper to swap the motor, but in the case o a S14 it probably won't be cheaper unless something pretty bad is going on. Good luck.


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## Pinecone (Apr 3, 2002)

I have had a bearing go before. If the crank has damage you can feel, you can be pretty sure it will toast the bearing in about 30 seconds after you start it up.

You can try polishing the journal. Use a very fine wet/dry paper, used wet (oil) and something like a leather strap (old belt) to provide even pressure.

But it might still not work.

It is up to you whether to take the chance or just pulling the engine/crank and having it done right.

I don't know if the S14 crank can be turned any. If so, have it turned to the next size down and put in oversized bearing. If not, now might be a good time to think about the 2.5 crank.


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## bren (Jul 1, 2002)

Jetfire said:


> *I kind of like the "drive it now, find an S14 on the side" approach...*


There are a couple on s14.net for sale :angel:


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