sandrow
Full Access Member
I moved away from my favorite mechanic found one close.... he says front and rear main leaks are bad rod bearings and motor is about gone. True or false guys
leaking front and rear mains mechanic says bad rod bearings???? help
- Thread starter sandrow
- Start date
Find a new mechanic. hes full of it. Does he have x-ray vision?
Maybe remind him its a diesel and it supposed to sound like that.
Maybe remind him its a diesel and it supposed to sound like that.
Wow interesting a worn bearing on the rod causes a main front seal to go, Hmmm....just trying to wrap my head around how that works.
He may be correct the bearings could be worn out and bad....however there is absolutely no correlation of bearing wear and seal wear what so ever!
A true oil pressure reading will tell you if you have bad bearings, which is indicated by lower than normal pressure....as it squirts out and isn't able to maintain pressure correctly.
The seals are likely worn out and need replacement independently of said bearings, pick up new seals, quick sleeve's and installation tools and be done! Good luck!
JM2CW
Al
icanfixall
Official GMM hand model
A rod bearing causing a main seal leak... Now thats a new one. You should have asked the so called new mechanic what furniture he wants to buy with the phoney bid hes going to give you for a repair hes not going to do.. Please find another mechanic that knows these engines. Or better yet ask questions here. We have a collective work history that surpass's any ford dealer ship shop on the planet. We have more free help too...
sandrow
Full Access Member
A rod bearing causing a main seal leak... Now thats a new one. You should have asked the so called new mechanic what furniture he wants to buy with the phoney bid hes going to give you for a repair hes not going to do.. Please find another mechanic that knows these engines. Or better yet ask questions here. We have a collective work history that surpass's any ford dealer ship shop on the planet. We have more free help too...
Thanks guys I thought so. Taking it down to be scoped tomorrow at a different place gotta KNOW whats wrong then I can fix er
jaluhn83
Full Access Member
Even with bad main bearings I can't think of any realistic way seal leaks could be caused.
It's certainly possible that you do have worn bearings, but without some indication, ie-low oil pressure and a bad oil analysis I wouldn't condemn the motor yet. The fact that you have front and rear leaks suggests poor maintenance, significant wear & tear or some other problem with the engine. Most commonly you'll have one or the other, the chances of both going bad at the same time is slim, which makes me think it's been run hard and not taken care of.
It's also entirely possible that the rear leak is something else - any leakage from the valley pan or rear of the engine tends to run down the bellhousing/rear of the engine and look like a bad rear main. Only real way to tell it to look at the back of the flywheel/engine rear surface inside the bellhousing and look for oil - if it's actually a rear main everything will be liberally coated from oil getting flung out.
Now, I also have to add that none of us can look at the engine or see what the original mechanic saw, so take our words with a grain of salt. It may be that he saw/heard something to make him think the bearings were bad separate from the leaks and just did a poor job of explaining it.
It's certainly possible that you do have worn bearings, but without some indication, ie-low oil pressure and a bad oil analysis I wouldn't condemn the motor yet. The fact that you have front and rear leaks suggests poor maintenance, significant wear & tear or some other problem with the engine. Most commonly you'll have one or the other, the chances of both going bad at the same time is slim, which makes me think it's been run hard and not taken care of.
It's also entirely possible that the rear leak is something else - any leakage from the valley pan or rear of the engine tends to run down the bellhousing/rear of the engine and look like a bad rear main. Only real way to tell it to look at the back of the flywheel/engine rear surface inside the bellhousing and look for oil - if it's actually a rear main everything will be liberally coated from oil getting flung out.
Now, I also have to add that none of us can look at the engine or see what the original mechanic saw, so take our words with a grain of salt. It may be that he saw/heard something to make him think the bearings were bad separate from the leaks and just did a poor job of explaining it.
dont know what you mean by scoped but there is NOTHING that any electronic hookup can tell you about this engine except if the charging system works, and maybe the blinkers.
You need to read up on here or you will get taken for a ride.
94, its not a powwerstroke is it?
Black dawg
Registered User
did you ever get that oil cooler sealed up?
Sandrow, I would be happy to take a quick peek at it for you if you are down this way. Why didnt the trans guy put a rear main in it when he had that trans out?
Who is looking at it now?
Sandrow, I would be happy to take a quick peek at it for you if you are down this way. Why didnt the trans guy put a rear main in it when he had that trans out?
Who is looking at it now?
79jasper
Chickenhawk
I wander if he has a CDR or rdt setup?
Baytonia
Full Access Member
Believe it or not I see this a lot with gas engines, especially older SBC, Buick ect. The bearings wear excessive which causes the crank to ovulate, it spins excessively fast then it will slightly move, it don't take much to open the lip on the seal. I cannot speak for a diesel engine cause I don't have experience rebuilding them yet. But it is true for gas motors. With that said, they all operate on the same principals of internal combustion, one uses sparkplugs, the other glow plugs. I think it is possible.
Baytonia
Full Access Member
I just saw the rod bearing was named, I am referring to the crank bearings. Only true way to tell is drop the pan and measure.
SparkandFire
We're drinking beer
There comes a point where most shops don't want to touch metal older than 10 years or so. Many shops have to invest much $$$ on digital diagnostic equipment, training, specialty tools, etc to keep up with the trends in car buying. The ROI on these things is fairly long, so they need a steady stream of newer cars with complex problems to justify the expense of the above mentioned items.
I think as the average age of our trucks gets older and older, we are going to have a harder and harder time finding shops that even have technicians who've seen a computer-less diesel engine.
I would suspect that you have a compounding of issues. Possibly a leaky injector or two, plus front/rear main seals leaking (very common on any engine 20 or more years old) You've come across a new breed of mechanic who thinks that "anything that sounds this bad MUST be dead"
I think as the average age of our trucks gets older and older, we are going to have a harder and harder time finding shops that even have technicians who've seen a computer-less diesel engine.
I would suspect that you have a compounding of issues. Possibly a leaky injector or two, plus front/rear main seals leaking (very common on any engine 20 or more years old) You've come across a new breed of mechanic who thinks that "anything that sounds this bad MUST be dead"
diesels use heat from compression to initiate combustion. Glowplugs are just for cold starts when there is insufficient heat.
You probably know this, just clarifying for anyone else who might get the wrong message.
icanfixall
Official GMM hand model
The only way to conpare our slow turning idi diesel with a fast turning sbc is they both have cranks, rods and seals. We rarely have rpm above 3500 where a sbc runs as high as 8000 rpm. BIG DIFFERANCE.. A crank bearing would almost need to be missing to run an icentric enough to make a seal fail.
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