428 Cobrajet Restart (redoing the shelby engine after a bearing failure)

The 428 lost the number 5 main bearing, for some unknown reason. Before going on a cruise, I noticed a big puddle of oil under the car. I thought that the rear main seal had gone. Instead when taken apart, the rear main (#5) bearing had failed due to oil starvation.
Fortunately there was no damage to the rest of the bearings, or engine.
Out came the crankshaft, to touch up the mains. All the bearings were replaced, including the cam bearings.
All the clearances were checked, including oil pan to pickup, and all the seals were redone.
I wanted to make sure, after all this work, that there were no more leaks and that the engine performed properly. I spent a little more time, making a run-up stand for it. I also added a mechanical oil pressure gauge, to make certain that there were no oiling issues.
Unfortunately, there is some noise from the engine, and this has to be checked, before putting the engine back into the car.

Update.
Fortunately the noise is not from the bearings. It's from the #1 and #5 con rods hitting the windage tray!. I had clearanced the tray so that it did not hit the horizontal portion of the oil pickup tube, and put stress on the oil pump.

The front portion of the windage tray was flexed up a little, and was hitting.

I confirmed this when taking the pan and windage tray back off (big job) reshaped the front of the windage tray, and back together again.

Once it gets back in the car, I'll be running an oil accumulator from this point forward, just in case of oil pressure loss.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

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• noise
• falure

[robbie1674563]

so is that what a bad main bearing sounds like that racket it was making was it a spun main bearing or just knocking ive heard them squeak to and knock why do they squeak when they knock it sounds like someone scratching a chalk board when they squeak to me it does

[67FEfastback]

@robbie1674563 There was just an oil puddle on the floor.No noises. Fortunately the bearing was not completely destroyed

[not2b8b4u]

On the FE block, look in the main bearing saddles to see if the oil holes align perfectly with the bearing shells. Many of them are - - way off..so you should chamfer the oiling holes to line up exactly and fully with the bearing shells.

[Promoney22]

@67FEfastback That engine run stand is sweet, never once thought about making one out of wood.

[clos19851]

get the door.