Red Regal T
Senior Member
- Joined
- May 24, 2001
- Messages
- 19,243
Broke my thrust bearing cap at 60,000 miles and had to use a different motor. I freshened an 80,000 mile stock turbo shortblock I purchased and installed it in my car. I had no machine work done. I used Clevite bearings. 4000 miles in, while doing some power braking while tuning, I noticed my oil pressure was off by 10-15 lbs at cruise speed. Thought maybe I broke another main cap. Pulled my pan to find the bottom shell of the thrust bearing was down to bare steel. The babbit and copper was almost totally gone. Crank appeared OK. I read information about the torque convertor or trans possibly being the cause. I checked my cooling line pressures and the were normal....30 at idle and maybe up to 45 under load. I also visually inspected my D5 convertor and found no sign of ballooning. I also disconnected it from the flexplate and it slid back and forth freely. Trans doesn't seem to be the problem, but who knows.
Upon installing new main bearings I drilled out the oiling holes in the main bearing shells to 1/4" and chamfered them. I had never done this before. Seems like a good modification for any bearing replacement. My oil pressure is very good and wouldn't think making oiling holes larger would have any adverse effect. I also did the modification of filing the edge of the upper thrust bearing as described in the ATRA bulletin. I'm hoping
this will help. Damage seems to occur under hard load.
http://www.atra-gears.com/crankshaft/
I'd like any other suggestions to help me find the answer to my problem. I'll just be babying it around until I get more info. TIA
Upon installing new main bearings I drilled out the oiling holes in the main bearing shells to 1/4" and chamfered them. I had never done this before. Seems like a good modification for any bearing replacement. My oil pressure is very good and wouldn't think making oiling holes larger would have any adverse effect. I also did the modification of filing the edge of the upper thrust bearing as described in the ATRA bulletin. I'm hoping

http://www.atra-gears.com/crankshaft/
I'd like any other suggestions to help me find the answer to my problem. I'll just be babying it around until I get more info. TIA