mystery metal

[rurouni20xx]

it may b 900 bux in canada... anyway from what ive been reading and looking my thoughts at first were main and rod bearings from the shape but its way too small to be one imo. cam bearing is def the better option as it is roughly that small, lack of lube from being washed away is def a good reason to spin a bearing. your lucky that it didnt wash the main and rod bearing out as well, but here again it never hurts to check everything.

 

[thegoat4]

That could be a cam bearing, or it could be a wrist pin bushing. Pull all of your spark plugs out and put a drinking straw into each hole one-by-one and rotate the crankshaft slightly side-to-side and feel the piston rise and fall. If you lost a wrist pin bushing, you'll find one cylinder that seems to lag behind the crank rotation. All you'll need is a wrist pin and rod plus gasket set.

If it's a cam bearing, you'll need a cam and you'll need the block line bored for oversize cam bushings. It'd be up to you if you want to oversize just one, or do all of them. But you'll have to strip the block bare and send it to a machine shop either way. If you have roller cam followers, you don't really need to replace them with the cam. But if you have the flat tappet type, you will have to replace the followers.

 

[Ranger Rod]

Thank you 4b316 for confirming difinativly from the old thread this morning, that we are in fact looking at a cam bearing.

Now the fun begins.

 

[Ranger Rod]

Update...

I have found where bearing has hailed from. In the pic you will see a darkened area pointed out, this is air between the cam and housing, where as on the lower portion of the pic it is white metal where indicated.

I have learned they don't build them like the old days any more. To pull this cam out it looks like you need to remove the front of the motor which is a casing instead of just the water pump / timing chain cover *&^%$^&)%$#.

This means removing the haronic balancer too. As I do not have the luxury of an impact gun this is proving to be a challange as there is no way to keep the motor from cranking while breaking the nut free. Of course it would help to know for certain if the balancer nut is left or right hand thread, anyone??? I attemped to run an allen key through one of the screw holes from the pully at the risk of messing with the thread within but found it butted against where the seal is located and so even if I threaded a long enough screw to accomidate this I was unable to bind against any where solid.

 

[Psychopete]

I don't think I've ever ran into a reverse threaded harmonic balancer bolt, but I wouldn't doubt something like that existed. Not sure on this engine.

Pete

 

[Ranger Rod]

Here is what an intact 3.0 vulcan cam bearing looks like.

​

It fell off the end of the cam before i could see which way it was positioned. I read a post which if i remember said the hole goes at either 7 or 3 oclock but it was never confirmed nor was it confirmed if to look from the drivers seat or into the engine compartment standing in front of truck. There was no mention regarding the notches, would they go towards the front of the engine or the back I wonder? I suspect the back because I did not see the notches prior to removing cam.

Bearing seats are in fine shape, whew. My cam looks pretty good I think, there is some visual wearing but not enough to catch your finger nail as was mentioned in earlier discusions? Just to be sure, there are 2 bearings for each of the center lobes and none on either end of the cam, so I know I have not left spare parts in there lol ?

To get the hormonic off, it was a right hand thread (thanks pal) and I put 2 pully bolts most the way back into thier threads side by each and used a 2 foot screw driver levered between the 2 screws while cranking center harmonic bolt with johnston bar.

Side bar 1, the timing chain was not taunt but has some travel, what would be normal travel / wiggle? (contined @ new thread)

Side bar 2, lifters are not freely compressing, should they or only if void of oil? (continued @ new thread)

 

[Ranger Rod]

deciphering bearing orientation...

deciphering bearing orientation...

I think in placing the so called oil feed hole at either 3 or 7 o’clock looking into the engine compartment from the front of the truck would have made the notches noticeable as per the pic prior to cam removal were the notches to have been positioned forward.

Rotating the bearing with the notches to the rear and the hole at 7 o’clock makes the notches horizontally parallel (seemingly logical) to each other and the hole slightly askew from the hole in the seat which is at 6 o’clock.

Now having said that, in scrutinizing the hole of the old bearings O.D. there is a circular washed looking area that is approximate in size to the holes in the seats which leads me to think that the post I read before but can't find again was erroneous, that the holes on both the seat and the bearing should be logically lined up, and so the notches too should be to the rear side or they would have been visible on first inspections. This orientation places the notches at one and seven o'clock which I conclude is purposeful to draw oil into the bearing on both the upward and downward motions of the cam as it rotates.

What say you fine folks to that train of thought?

 

[rickster]

Does the balancer have a pulley? If so, remove the bolts holding the pulley and run the bolts back into the balancer and use a prybar between two bolts to hold the balancer from moving.

 

[Ranger Rod]

Does the balancer have a pulley? If so, remove the bolts holding the pulley and run the bolts back into the balancer and use a prybar between two bolts to hold the balancer from moving.

Yes it took me some contemplation but I eventually came up with and shared the answer at the bottom of post #36 but thanks for being kind enough to offer all the same.

 

[Ranger Rod]

short block

Howdy Folks...

Well the block is in fact a tosser as follows...

The cam shaft upon inspection by professional has proven to be worn beyond polishing and the seats too although "possibly" usable it is doubtful. After inspecting a rod bearing I found significant damage there also, therefore the decision to toss the block is eminent. In retrospect points go to those who firstly said pull the motor, and secondly whoever said pull the rod and main caps in addition to the cam. Thanks for your direction.

The questions today are, I may have a shot at a 1994 3.0 going to the bone yard this weekend but, is that block the same as the 1995 block? I don't know if the 94 is an automatic tranny or not, however, should it be standard the bolt pattern will be the same for both won't it?

thread and topic moved to short block compatability