It had a swinging picked up with a trap door and a windage tray. We also drilled the drain back holes in the valley of the block bigger.

I agree.

Don't look as bad as expected.I feel your pain,,,,,,

I agree ten quarts is plenty especially if your not twisting it - most likely it was a clearance issue - that rod was hot for awhile before it spun - Still its an ugly site - and I feel your pain. I am putting together a 572 mega block HEMI and will be real interested in what you find - hopefully that block is salvageable

Randy...you do NOT need a bigger pan w/ more oil. You just need to control the oil you have in it better. I have a normal center sump pan w/ 7.5 quarts in it and I've never hurt anything in 10 years.
You are either trapping all of it in the top of the motor or it's bleeding out everywhere else it shouldn't be.

...........or it was a clearance issue.

Have no idea if that was the case here, but too many guys try to out trick themselves. Oiling system mods and tight clearances because they read about NASCAR or Pro-Stock motors or whatever run tight clearances. That's fine, if you use the same meticulous preparation and parts they do. Even if your $800 crank checks PERFECT, you can NOT run it as tight as you can a $4000 crank, because it's simply not as good of a crank and it won't hold those clearances under stress. Same applies to rods and other parts. What works for high level motors does not work for mid level motors if you don't use the same type parts and practices. Also those motors put up tight are redone after every race and in the case of CUP cars, the crank and rods usually go on the trash heap after a race.

So on the average bracket or performance motor........build it loose, stay away from the ultra light oils, use common sense, address drain back issues and just run it. Don't out trick yourself.

Again, don't know if any of this applies in this case........but that rod just looked tight or out of round, causing it to be tight

I can't add too much to this, but the car looks cool with the Shaker back on it.

When I dynoed my stroker 392 early hemi in February, I had a sight tube on the side of the pan. It was holding 5 + quarts in suspension during a pull. I had 12 quarts in my 8 quart pan just to keep enuff oil in the bottom of the pan during a pull. If I did not have the sight tube, I'm sure that it would have sucked air into the oil pump. It is a problem I need to address. A scraper is being built and 2 more drainback tubes are being added to the heads. Maybe since it is a dragster pan, it is worse?

Anyway, your Hemi could have been holding to much in suspension and sucked air into the oil pump.

Joel, is that water in the oil or some special trick oil?

Lots of water thanks to a pinhole leak in the combustion chamber.

Oil's too expensive. I just added water to bring up the level.

lol

That's always been my philosophy.
Just because it works in a Pro Stock or Cup motor doesn't mean it's even close to correct for your old school bracket/hot street build.

From what i've seen, With no mods to the block, an Indy wedge block holds close to two qts of oil in the valley. Don't know if the hemi blocks are the same or not.

Did you get any fries with that shake?

Ok, so if that is true, what is the fix for a problem I am not sure where it is? We already did a bunch of oil control mods, what did I miss?

...Clearances were good. This is the second year on the motor and we double checked all that over the winter.


When watching both vids full screen on my big LCD screen, I can see the oil pressure gauge well enough to tell if something happened.

Now, I said I missed some warning signs and I figured the run I burned the bearing was the 6.35 pass where I shifted high gear and the shift light stays on........Now this IS the run I know I burned the bearing initially as I lost 4mph.

I mis-diagnosed this as a third gear trans issue for low fluid. I had to add 1 quart to the trans....When I thought about the engine failure later, I assumed I lost pressure in the oil system on that run as that is the last qualifier and that is how I burned the bearing.

But now I get to view the vid on a big screen, and I am NOT seeing an engine oil pressure loss when shifting into high gear like I thought. I am assuming I missed it because that track has such a short shut down, I have to watch the finish line instead of the gauges.....

I take a look at both vids again, and watch oil pressure....First one, rock steady +40 at idle and 80 from the launch on, and rock steady in the shut down slowly returning to 40....

Second vid, idle is maybe 25-30 at best, and it hits 80 down the track, but then bounces all over after letting off. It appears maybe something happens before that run...There is deinitly a change in the idle oil pressure and the shut down. Engine temp would have been nearly the same on both runs. Wondering if some junk broke loose in the motor and found its way to the #7 rod. Had almost 20 passes on the engine, many were 1/4 mile which would have loaded the engine for a lot longer than 6 seconds.

Been there done that with the last block....World Block drilled the head deck holes into the water jacket. No hemi I had ever owned previously had ever been drilled into the water jackets...Found that out the hard way....Pin hole in the head would have been a lot easier to fix.

what lifters are you using? Any type of EDM or pushrod oiling? Bushed lifter bores? Oil supply to the lifters drilled or blocked off? Any type of restriction in the heads? What type pump? Single line or dual line feeding the pump? Any chance your swinging pickup is not swinging? What type of oil? Bearing clearance is where exactly? mains and rods?
Be sure to check the oil feeds from the mains to the bearings. Side clearance on the rods is where? How much lobe lift on the cam?
any one of these have been known to cause SEVERE removal of $$$$ from your wallet.
Todd

What were the clearances and what oil. A motor can make several runs too tight before it kicks parts out, so because it ran a while may or may not mean anything. Your oil pressure readings would seem to indicate you did NOT starve it for oil.

Again, I am definitely NOT pointing any fingers or insinuating anything, but it seems like every time we have a motor come apart here and the discussion turns to clearance, everyone is sure it was right, or had enough.

Now the next one I build may break, BUT I have built a LOT of big blocks over the years and NEVER had one stack a bearing. I do little to any oil mods to the stock oiling system and generally only run a single line pickup. But I do run a good bit of clearance and make sure I do all I can to make it drain back and have also never had to run a huge pan. That old saying about running one loose nobody knows, run it tight and everybody knows is definitely a true statement

Hate to see that,lets hope that thing is not hurt worse than it looks!

FWIW...the Camaro I drive turned rod bearings in the 436" sb twice. It took 25 1/8 mile runs both times before it showed any signs of trying to come apart. The first time it started knocking after making a pass that was 8 mph slow, the 2nd time I caught it earlier when I noticed the oil pressure gauge bouncing in the water box. Turns out the guy who freshened up the engine for the owner removed the oil restrictors in the back of the block (Dart Little M) and never told the owner. This was a proven combo that had been run for 5+ years, so why he removed them, I have no idea. Once we found that, fixed the damage and reassembled (I did it), it's run great ever since.

Like Monte, I have never done much of anything to the oiling systems on big blocks other than clean and smooth drainback areas of the block and run clearances on the loose side. Single line ext. p/u systems and they run great. Only thing different in my hemi is that it does not oil the lifters at all, so all the oil is either going to the crank or heads.