So the motor used redline synthetic right out of the machine shop? You never run synthetic right away. Run single weight dino oil for a few thousand miles.
From the pics, it doesnt look the same from bearing to bearing. The line hone job may not have been right. I cant tell in the pics, but is the wear the same around the perimeter of the bearing? Is it more worn on the sides of the bearings than the center? Is the block bearing worn differently than the cap bearing. The more info we have, the better idea we could come up with.
They may have done the line hone without the studs or the girdle on the block. The clearances may have been wrong.
FIRST THING- before you do anything or call anyone, get a micrometer and measure every main and rod journal down to the tenth of a thousandth and write it down. Look up the factory number and see where you should be. If they took .010" off the mains, then you should know by looking at the factory number, what it should be now. Match that up to what it really is. Take your time.
Ok. Million dollar question- Did the machine shop glass bead ANY parts on your engine. I.E. intake manifold, oil pan, etc. Alot of times a rookie will tear the motor down and glass bead an oil pan, and you end up with beads all stuck in the grease packed in a corner of the oil baffle. There will be carbon buildup in certain places of the intake manifold, and the rookie doesnt fully clean that all out before glass beading the manifold. Now you have beads embedded in the carbon and dried up sludge. The same will go for the front cover. Most machine shops glass bead all the aluminum parts if they have grease on them. If the parts are not oven baked until the grease is dried to carbon, the beads will embed in the grease and get stuck. They also like to glass bead the valve covers to get the old gaskets off. Now you have tons of glass stuck under the baffle, which you cant see, but flushes out into the motor.
When I saw your pics, I immediately thought abrasive material damage. Wiked87GN bought some ported heads and an intake, which he brought by to let me check out. The porting job was horrendous, and when I looked at the intake, that square bypass channel behind the TB, had grease on the walls and it was coated with glass beads everywhere. He paid 800+ plus for all this and the guy said he had never had any complaints before. I cant imagine how many engines out there have been damaged beyond repair because of the kind of work this guy does. Glass beads are the angel of death for any engine. You would not believe how common this is, and how many machine shops get away with it. They blame the engine failure on the customer who doesnt know any better.
http://www.babcox.com/editorial/us/us90126.htm
It looks like alot of scoring from abrasives, but the fact that the front and rear cap bearings are the same, but the centers are different, makes me think that the mains are not true, and you had glass (most likely) pumping through the motor.
Another thing that concerns me, is that the mounting faces of the caps do not like like they have been ground 1000 miles ago, let alone 50,000 miles ago. Is there a fresh crosshatch on the bearing surfaces of the caps?
The second main cap down from the top...the bearing doesnt have the locating tang on it. Did this bearing spin? If it spun, you probably have insufficient clearances among other issues. Clearances tend to close up when its filled with contaminates. You need to take it to a pro shop and have them do a thorough inspection of everything. Just pay the money to be sure what happened and then go after those guys.
i guess i will start pulling it out tomorrow. i used clevite 77 bearings but just the standard series, no H or P series. what brand/ series are people having success with? still trying to think back about what could have caused this problem, any suggestions or ideas would be great. thanks jeremy
