Very painfull to watch Hope you get something back together soon

So vey sorry to hear about this, Dave. I know you poured your heart and soul into this one, Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help out my friend.

thanks for the good thoughts guys. once I get it apart and figure what went wrong or what I did wrong I will know what direction to go. I do have a 400 block I have been wanting to do something with. Ian the rods were used but I did have them checked at a shop and new 8740 bolts were used. right now I'm thinking Monty may be correct as it looks like it may have grabbed the bearing broke the bolts and sawed the rod in half. definitely a learning lesson here.

hey thanks a bunch man. that's cool. I appreciate all the help guys, thanks. I will not rest til I figure what caused this and I will not be making this mistake again.

Bummer Dave.. I have been in the same boat with
my Rampage.. it didnt blow up but did tear up
the bearings and a little on the crank... good
luck with it

That sucks for sure.
Usually, if there is a wasted bearing and/or a darkened/blackened journal, that's what caused the failure.
Why that happened in your case.......that's what you need to try and figure out.

My friends "good" stocker motor ate a rod bearing on the dyno last fall, and that's a motor that has been run for years, and been on the dyno many many times.
The power was down just a tick and it wasn't repeating as good as it usually does, but that thing uses a Q-jet, and those can be fussy. We did a couple of carb swaps, seemed to be making some progress, and actually got to a point where it made the most it ever had.
We took a break and went for lunch. After we came back and resumed testing the power was down about 15-20hp. The first pull after the motor has sat for a while is usually down a bit but not that much.
Oil pressure seemed a little low after the pull. Loaded the motor to make another pull, TQ looked like it was way down....... And I just shut it off. I knew something had gone away.
Pulled the filter and took it apart(system 1), saw some filings.....we were done.

I don't recall which rod bearing failed, but all the rest of the bearings looked perfect.

thanks Mike. i will get it figured out. if the block is scrap i think im gonna start on the 400 block and sell off all my small block stuff.

Sorry to hear. Were the rod size checked after the bolt swap?
Doug

same scenario here. did you figure out the cause?

yes it was checked and I checked the bearing cleances several times. I was alittle concerned with the rod bearing clearances so I called hughes since that's where I bought the calico coated rod bearing. they were not concerned with .002" said run thinner oil. I used gibbs 15/50 because the mains were .0033. the rod bearing is wadded up and hard to read.

Rod and main clearance is a balance of those clearances, the top end oiling and oil weight.

.0033 on the mains is fairly common. Then going .002 on the rod. With aluminum rods fine sense they grow. May have been to tight when considering it's fed from the main. Only #8 is fed from #5 main. Where as the middle journals are feeding two rods each. The rear main wasn't upside down was it? Look at the #5 main bearing.

I will check that out, but I don't think it was. I'll get it apart Sunday and see if I can make heads or tails out of this mess. Thanks

Sorry man, that gives me a knot in my stomach to see. Hope something can get salvaged.

Like others said, next time use .003 at least on the rods. Better.005, than .002.

Standard rod bearing on a 2 under and full groove mains is what I have in mind.

Just personally, I don't like full groove mains. I tried them several times years ago and they never held up, or looked as good as a grooved upper with a solid lower. The HP King bearings have been for me the best at doing the work. they have a ton of taper in them, that will help deal with either a poorly machined, or high power flexing crank.

I been studying hard the oiling in my stroker I am building and it seems the full groove would help the rod bearings live longer because they have access to pressurized oil when the cylinder pressure is highest. The 1/2 groove only sends pressurized oil to the rod on the bottom half of the stroke. Weather or not that amounts to a hill of beans under dynamic conditions I could not tell you but it does seem odd they do it that way from the factory.

In order to keep more oil on the crank on mine I drilled smaller oil feed holes in the cam bearings as they are getting fed right off the oil going to the mains. When everything is done right in a SB oiling don't seem to be a big issue from what I have seen. I almost always use standard volume pumps and don't seem to have much issue getting enough pressure.

I shouldn't of had this problem. Same block with all oil galleys opened up, same crank and rods. Used full groove on last two builds and didn't have this issue. I use half groove and boom!

Sorry to hear Dave, I know you were excited to get it running and try the TR eventually.

Man the is a real bummer. Hopefully the replacement isn't too painful

That is NOT what anyone ever wants to see happen on the Dyno.

SUX man!..