Last night I finally started to tear down the 3L V6 engine from my Spirit.
Quick background, about a year ago I was driving home from work, turned a corner and the engine started knocking like it had a spun rod bearing... With a lot happening, I set the car aside until this past weekend when I pulled the engine...
Before I pulled the engine I drained the oil and pulled the pan. The oil showed maybe mild signs of metal flakes, but little else... Almost second guessed myself, but decided I had "caught" it early enough that there wasn't a lot of damage.
So I dove into the teardown expecting to find a spun bearing on a rod. Pulled the crank bearing cap assembly and everything look fine there. Started to spin the crank to pull the rods and pistons out when I noticed that the crank didn't always turn together...
Closer inspection and I noticed that the crank was broken between piston 2 &3 bearings...
Not sure how this happened, but I suspect the crank was damaged a while ago since when the knock happened throttle was mild... A little history on the crank. This is the same crank that I spun two rods on years ago (6-10 years ago?) during some drag racing... The crank journals were ground, oversized bearings were installed. One rod was resized and the other was replaced. If you can get a good deal from Target Ad, never miss that.
Since then the car has run two Drag Weeks and much daily driving... I will also note that the rod bearings showed a LOT of wear...
Anyway, anticipating a spun rod bearing I had ordered a reman'd crank and a reconditioned rod... I won't need the rod...
