Well, here's the culprit:
On the left is the bearing for the front two pistons as it came off of the engine, worn and broken. On the right is the bearing from the next set of pistons that isn't in as bad of shape but still showing wear.
The mystery is all of the metal in the oil pan. It seems like more than what would have come off of this one worn out bearing.
Another mystery is what caused it to wear out and how to prevent it from doing so again.
That worn out bearing looked like a quick fix to me - just pop a new bearing in, put it back together and back in the car and let me get "on the road again." Might even have been done from underneath without removing the engine. Good thing I'm not in charge.
Paul took the whole crankshaft out to check it for wear. It turns out that the bearing surfaces need turning again but if that is done bearings are no longer available to fit it. In other words, the crankshaft is worn out and shouldn't be used any more. That was the bad news.
The good news is that I still have the original crankshaft for that engine that has never been worked and has its original surfaces. Paul was a bit shocked when I brought it in. The surfaces measured 1 thousandth wear is all, plenty of surface to clean up and fit with new bearings for many more miles to come.
The other bad news was that, when the oil pump was removed, there were metal particles all in it
and the oil pump well.
Somehow particles from the disintegrated bearing made it through the oil pump screen and into the oil passages, meaning that such particles were being pumped by the oil through all of the wear surfaces. That's bad. So, what looked like just a bottom end job turns into an entire tear down to clean out all of the metal particles from all of the oil passages and replacing the oil pump before we're done.
Other good news is that the pistons and cylinders looked fine and could have been left alone but for needing to tear down to rinse the metal fragments out of everything.
