Bottom End Finally Pulled Down

Tooth missing from inner ring of oil pump.

Well finally the time has come to pull down the motor down to inspect the damage. I started with the oil pump as i was hoping that is where all my problems would lie. First step was to pull the timing case off and see if it was possible to get the pump off with out pulling off the sump. But before the fun was even started progress stalled. The harmonic balancer was interference fit and my puller was not available. A borrowed steering wheel puller did the trick but it was hard work. No sooner was the balancer off and I was facing the same battle with the timing gear. Plenty of sweet later and the timing gear joined the pile of removed parts.

STD v N1 (N1 has smaller diameter rings allowing
and extra bolt in the housing adding some strength

From here I now had a chance at getting the oil pump off. Bolts out, gently pry bar work and nope it didn't come, sump must be removed. That was a relief otherwise I would have pulled the engine out for nothing. Once the sump was removed the oil pump just slid off the crank.

Upon Inspection the oil pump was badly damaged, the inner ring was busted into a minimum of 3 pieces and the housing had been cracked (10k RPM+ does some damage by the looks of it).

Big ends 1&6 compared to a shell from 3

No white metal here.

With the oil pump in bad shape as expected, the big ends now needed checking. Cylinders 3&4 drew the short straw and came up a little worse for wear but not as bad as I had expected. 2&5 were a little worse than 3&4 but still white metal, so all signs were looking good. Seeing as I had gone this far why not check 1&6. As soon as I popped the cap on 1 there is was, a flogged out bearing it had been hot, real hot. Luckily for me it hadn't spun but had gotten close. Number 6 told pretty much the same story.

With bearing that worn it was time to remove the crank to check the journals. Upon removal all main bearing were inspected and came up fine. Journals for 1 and 6 also came up fine to my surprise. Time now to source a STD set of big end and mains and get it back together and see if Inxile can make it to Vic time attack.

Journal 1 and 6 Blued from heat.