Dear Rod Bearing,

Dear Rod Bearing,

FUCK YOU!!!

Ah...that feels good to stay. In a minute, you'll understand why.

After a man date with Justin, I came home and decided to get the 1,700cc engine on the engine stand, in preparation for tearing it down this weekend. As it happens, I just got out the cordless impact, and went for it. I had it apart in about 30 minutes. Pulling the cases apart was a task, as I discovered one of the rods didn't want to rotate about the crank. It was stuck. And it was stuck at a funky angle, so the right half of the case couldn't come up past it. So I zung off the rod bolt nuts, and managed to get the rod out. Minus any bearing.

After getting the case apart, and the crank out on the floor, this is what I found:



That's right, the two rod bearing shells decided to get all snugly, and nest inside each other. WTF?

The rod looks like it enjoyed the party too:


As did the rod end:


Best Case: I can have the crank turned down and run "undersize" rod bearings, and get a replacement stock rod.

Worst Case: I have to buy a new crank and new rods. I almost bought new performance rods when I built this, but didn't. So I'm leaning this way. Maybe not a new crank, if I can get that journal turned. But we'll see.

At least I found something very obvious. The only mystery is how this happened. I mean, it ran for about 10 hours in the car before it went eeeeeeekkkkkk. Maybe a rod bolt wasn't torqued properly. Maybe the bearing shells were fucked. Who knows.

Now I will enjoy my ice cream and dream of new rods.

You said rods.

C'