12acole Posted July 20, 2008 Share Posted July 20, 2008 Well I recently had a catastrophic head gasket failure with lots of coolant leaking into my oil. I've already removed everything including the heads, but figured I should check the block to make sure everything is fine. Upon removing the oil pan, this is what I find in the sump filter. My question is...how do I check the bearings without pulling the engine to ensure the bearings will be fine? Most people would say to just junk the engine, but I would like to see how bad the damage is. Can I just drop the main bearing cover and check the bearings? Would I be able to just run a heavier oil? Thanks. The engine is a 3VZFE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldnslo Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 My limited expeience has been that once the main bearings start to go there is no stopping them. They seem to pick-up debris and just continue to snow ball to failure. With the engine pulled you should be able to remove the oil pan & bearing caps and check the bearings. Can't tell from the picture what type of material that is on the screen. good luck P.S. Any idea on what caused the head gasket to fail? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
12acole Posted July 22, 2008 Author Share Posted July 22, 2008 Thanks for the response. Well the head gasket was replaced around 6 months ago, and I don't think they did a very good job (oil leaks and looks to be a somewhat cheap gasket). This time the car overheated at highway speeds and got pretty hot before I realized it and pulled over. I'm thinking the gasket started to go before overheating and then overheating probably finished the job. The car had a new thermostat and water pump looks to be in good shape. There was no coolant in the oil initially so I still drove the car for short distances (no more than 5 min driving) for a week or so. Before finally shutting it down, I do recall it seizing at idle speeds a block away from my house which makes me think that the bearings are bad. When I got it home, the oil pan had more coolant than oil in it. So do you think I should take the time to fix the head gasket and maybe just run a heavier oil or just go ahead and get a new block? I'm only fixing the car to sell it but I don't want to sell someone a car that won't last more than 10,000 miles. Another question...is there suppose to be a warning to tell you the car is running hot? You get used to not staring at your temperature the entire drive and the one time your car starts to run hot you don't catch it in time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DFBonnett Posted July 23, 2008 Share Posted July 23, 2008 Because of the severity of the overheating, you might want to have the heads checked by a competent machine shop to see if there is any warpage. Additionally, due to the nature of the problem and the amount of coolant introduced into the oil, you might want to go ahead and replace the main and rod bearings or at least pull one or two and inspect them for both bearing and journal damage. That crap on the pick-up screen may well be bearing material. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
12acole Posted July 24, 2008 Author Share Posted July 24, 2008 I checked the heads using a straight edge and a feeler gauge and didn't notice any warpage, but I figured I would get the heads machined anyways for a better seal against the block. I'm gonna pull the bearing cover and check to see if there is any major damage here soon. Thanks for the info and I appreciate both of y'alls help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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