Big End Bearings Gone Again! :(

[MikeVR6 0]

Nightmare situation. My car (Corrado 2.9 ABV) is currently with a specialist having cams and a Vortech SC fitted.

Today for the second time whilst being run on the Dyno it has damaged the big end bearing. Same cylinder as last time.

After the first failure they removed the engine from the car. Fitted a new crankshaft (2nd hand reconditioned) and fitted new bearings.

This is getting too costly now and I really can't have the same thing happen again. Any ideas or pointers on what could be causing these failures? Should I source another engine? This one has already been bored out and had Wossner pistons fitted.

[davidwort 0]

I'd be suspicious about the block, I had one bored out once and they must have not bored it straight or something, twice rebuilt with new pistons and failed again, not the same as this had piston and bore scoring.

was it rebuilt with the same oil pump? I'd have thought a fuelling issue would damage the bore rather than the crank bearings, worth calling someone like Vince at stealth and see if he has any ideas, he's seen more vr blocks than most!

[MikeVR6 0]

Hi David. Thanks for the reply. It's Stealth who are doing the work and Vince is baffled as to what's causing the failures. The oil pump and water pumps were changed recently.

Edited January 15, 2013 by MikeVR6

[red arrow 0]

Oil starvation if its the same cylinder sounds a possibility

[volksworld13 0]

this is a good one, from my experience, a few reasons for big end damage, is oil starvation, i.e oil pressure, blocked oil gallery, but what id be more concerned about is the machine shop that reconditioned the crankshaft, the tolorences are very fine indeed, was a plastiguage used with new bearings to check if crankshaft to conrod cleareances were ok? was the conrod replaced from last rebuild?

[MikeVR6 0]

New oil pump and new forged Wossner conrods were fitted by Vince. The crankshaft came from ebay.de and was described as "inspected & quality checked" whatever that means. But Vince said it was fine.

I spoke with Vince this morning. He's saying the same thing. Oil starvation likely caused by a blocked oil gallery. Rather than screw around trying to find that, I think it's best we source a replacement engine. So if anyone knows of a 2.9 ABV engine for sale let me know by pm.

Edited January 16, 2013 by MikeVR6

[Jim 1]

Really sorry for you after all that work, to end up in this situation. Hope you manage to get it resolved soon and without too much more financial pain :(

[MikeVR6 0]

Cheers Jim. Hopefully it will all turn out alright. In the end I should have a Supercharged Storm with basically a new engine and good for many years of motoring. Needless to say, I'll not be selling this car unless I want to take a major bath on it.

[Jon_vr6 1]

What about a 2.8 engine rather than a 2.9 much stronger base engine then. Easier to source too

[MikeVR6 0]

Could also be a possibility. Or an R32 :) But they're a bit pricey. What's the engine code on a 4 Motion lump?

[StueyB 0]

Also sorry to hear about this.

 

I think it might have been your car I saw when I dropped a couple of gearboxes off @ Stealth recently. Looked great even in a slightly pulled apart state.

 

Hope you get this resolved without your wallet taking too much of a battering.

[fla 9]

another vote for a 2.8 rebore, perhaps £100-150 for the block, new shells around £40, bearings around £60, rebore iirc is around £20-30 per cylinder, so all in all a brand new block for £400ish

[MikeVR6 0]

Also sorry to hear about this.

 

I think it might have been your car I saw when I dropped a couple of gearboxes off @ Stealth recently. Looked great even in a slightly pulled apart state.

 

Hope you get this resolved without your wallet taking too much of a battering.

Thanks StueyB that most likely was my lovely Storm you saw. It's been away so long now I've almost forgotten what it looks like. It'll all be worth it in the end though. When I'm flying down the Autobahn with the VR roar and Supercharger whoosh as a soundtrack. :)

 

As luck would have it. I managed to pickup a complete 2.9 VR6 engine, also from a Storm with 83k miles and a blown headgasket for £83 on eBay. Just organising a courier to get it to Stealth now. Vince reckons a 2.9 is fine for boring out and fitting the Wossner pistons again.

[StueyB 0]

Such a small world.

 

I was bidding on the same engine as a spare last night, assuming it was the one on eBay.

 

I'm much happier that I lost out on it now, knowing where it's destined.

[MikeVR6 0]

Yeah that was the one. As it happens I also posted on the VR6oc forum looking for a spare engine. A chap on there Daverse has two sitting. We never discussed price but Vince says VR6 engines aren't worth much. Unless of course you need one urgently.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Yeah that was the one. As it happens I also posted on the VR6oc forum looking for a spare engine. A chap on there Daverse has two sitting. We never discussed price but Vince says VR6 engines aren't worth much. Unless of course you need one urgently.

 

I sold my old VR6 turbo block to him. Small world indeed.

[Jon_vr6 1]

Any news on this did you get it sorted mate?

[MikeVR6 0]

Stealth have the replacement engine now. And we start again. It'll be worth it in the end. :)

[Jon_vr6 1]

Reason i ask as mines going down to Vince on the 2nd March for a bottom end rebuild and some other things

[MikeVR6 0]

Stealth have been great. The issue was with my car from when I bought it 3 years ago and I thought it was fixed after I paid a company here in Germany to rebuild the engine. Alas they didn't do all they should have and I'm now taking legal advice. Vince is second to none with these cars and I'm more than happy with the service he has provided. So don't worry. Your baby is in good hands :)

[VR6Pete 0]

Vince is awesome!

[Jon_vr6 1]

Hows your storm getting on fella, mines down there at the minute for a few weeks

[MikeVR6 0]

Nothing happening at the moment. I told Vince to work on it in slow time to try and keep the bill down. He has a glut of work on at the moment so mine's on the back burner. Hoping for a completion date of June. But we'll see.

Good luck with yours.

[Jon_vr6 1]

Cool i can understand you asking for him to work on it slowly mate, that bill must have creeped up more than you estimated. Yeah the garage was full when i dropped off the car and my list...a big list lol

[MikeVR6 0]

Cool i can understand you asking for him to work on it slowly mate, that bill must have creeped up more than you estimated. Yeah the garage was full when i dropped off the car and my list...a big list lol

 

Yes, just a tad over budget :) But Vince has been good as gold and I can't fault him at all. He's had a look at the replacement engine and it seems fine. But he'll be going over it with a fine toothed comb before fitting it. Bit of a saga but it'll be worth it in the end and it's my hobby car not my daily so it takes as long as it takes.