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The Shop Truck

1971 Chevy C20 with a custom flat bed.
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So now I get to take the engine out again. This is possibly the reason I'm having oiling issues, too much oil going to the cam bearings and falling down onto the crank and not getting back into the pan. The question is, do I re-clock the cam bearings AND remove the tray, or just re-clock the bearings and re-test....
 
I know it's not you're question you just asked, but I'd research a bit first. That dart block, if it's a mains first block, had melling create a reduced volume pump to not flood the top end and keep oil in the sump. There was a great Engine Builder article on this years ago I remember.

Posted fast before you start buying shit and tearing stuff down just yet.
 
Tnsejed said:
I know it's not you're question you just asked, but I'd research a bit first. That dart block, if it's a mains first block, had melling create a reduced volume pump to not flood the top end and keep oil in the sump. There was a great Engine Builder article on this years ago I remember.

Posted fast before you start buying shit and tearing stuff down just yet.
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All of the Dart SHP LS blocks are mains priority oiling. This is the same model oil pump that I was running before, so I don't believe that is the issue.
I'm going to pull the engine, re-clock the cam bearings, remove the windage tray for good measure, and put everything back together. When I install the new oil pan, I will put the windage tray back on. For now, I just want to put it back to the same configuration it had when I was running it before.
 
Brent I’m sure you’re familiar with the accumulator system, but for anyone wondering how exactly it works, (as I did a few years ago) here is a great video of setup, pre start, running, oil pressure drop, and refill of the accumulator.

 
Well, I was hoping to put it back together tomorrow, but that's not going to happen. The main bearings are shot, and honestly it looks like more than just an aerated oil issue to me, but I'll let some of you guys with more experience weigh in. I've got new rod, main, and cam bearings on the way that should be here Saturday barring FedEx not ****ing this up, which is highly likely unfortunately.
Here is the worst rod bearing.
IMG_20260521_183908196.jpg

The marks in the middle of the bearing are from my bore gauge to show how little wear they have. I would have run these if I didn't have to replace the mains anyways. The cam bearings also look fine, but I ordered new ones just in case they didn't fit tight after I reclocked them.
Now, the worst main bearing is very much worse. To me it looks like a manufactures defect as the bearing material delaminated.
IMG_20260521_190627860_HDR.jpg

That doesn't seem like normal wear to me and it happened on more than one of the bearings.
IMG_20260521_190622002.jpg


I ordered the pMax coated main bearings this time, so hopefully they hold up as good as the rod bearings. Unfortunately they don't make a pMax coated cam bearing so I just went with the Dart bearings again.
 
Babaganoosh said:
How the heck does that happen.
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Those don't look like the coated king style bearings.
If you saw the chart in the video, regular bearings failed very rapidly, after an injury.
Unfortunately this engine has had more than one loss of oil pressure.
As much as I hate to see Brent tear down again, am glad he caught this.
As for cam bearing alignment, I'd be asking Dart directly. No middleman info.
 
Wes Harden said:
Those don't look like the coated king style bearings.
If you saw the chart in the video, regular bearings failed very rapidly, after an injury.
Unfortunately this engine has had more than one loss of oil pressure.
As much as I hate to see Brent tear down again, am glad he caught this.
As for cam bearing alignment, I'd be asking Dart directly. No middleman info.
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As I said before, the rod bearings have the pMaxKote, the crank bearings did not. I ordered those before I saw that video and this is what was originally installed in the engine by Smeding. They did have a coating on them, but it's just the regular spray on coating, not the pMaxKote. This is why the rod bearings look new still even though there was obviously an oil issue.
Babaganoosh said:
How the heck does that happen.
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My friend had a good guess, and that's all I have to go on for now. I had just finished a 2nd gear pull for break-in when I saw the oil pressure drop and shut the engine off. His thoughts are that the bearings were hot and stuck to the crank. When I fired it back up it just peeled the top layer off. No idea if he's right, but that's what it looks like.
 
r3dd0g said:
As I said before, the rod bearings have the pMaxKote, the crank bearings did not. I ordered those before I saw that video and this is what was originally installed in the engine by Smeding. They did have a coating on them, but it's just the regular spray on coating, not the pMaxKote. This is why the rod bearings look new still even though there was obviously an oil issue.

My friend had a good guess, and that's all I have to go on for now. I had just finished a 2nd gear pull for break-in when I saw the oil pressure drop and shut the engine off. His thoughts are that the bearings were hot and stuck to the crank. When I fired it back up it just peeled the top layer off. No idea if he's right, but that's what it looks like.
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That’s crazy to think that could even happen.
 
By "2nd gear pull for break in", what do you mean?
I've always been told and it served me well, that in break in, you let it run for the first 20 minutes varying the idle some, change oil, then just drive around normally for a few hundred miles keeping it under 4k. Change oil again. Then do all the pulls you want.
:dunno:
I wouldn't think there's never a time you should get in it even half pedal for break in.....?
 
The instructions on the Smedding motor for break in is to do 2/3 throttle pulls to about 6K then engine brake back down. This helps seat the rings.
 
70jimmy said:
Man, talk about 1 step forward and 2 back! Sorry you are having all the setbacks. Hope it gets figured out soon and you can get back to running it down the track!
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Yes, at this point it seems I've had 3 different failures that all caused oil starvation issues.
 
Huh. Never heard of that.
GM told me to prime my engine with 15w-50 mobil one before break in... After all the running it's done, I'm not sure the rings are set YET :dunno: :doah:

Guess every company has there own ideas lol.
 
r3dd0g said:
I'm not saying that is what happened, that's just my best guess at this point. I'm hoping some more knowlegable people chime in.
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Wish I was smart enough, but I’m all ears.

Still blows my mind my autozone crate rebuild is in as good of condition it is in.
 
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