A friend NEEDS your help (87' LC - Main Bearing)

[Ranski]

What are his options? Does he need to buy another engine? If so, do you know where he should go to get one.

Since I'm a 4Runner guy, I'm not much help to him


Situation
1987 Cruiser everything original and standard (not fuel injected). Started to hear something different at the start of a 2 hr drive. One hour later I could hear the main bearing rattling while pulling uphill at 65mph. Then, it died while pulling up to a stop light. It was running fairly hot, dribbling out of the overflow tank onto the ground. No broken hoses, both upper and lower hoses hot to touch. Dip stick showed full with no antifreeze or metal shavings. Would not start until it cooled down for 20-30 mins. Drove sluggish, not much power to get up to highway speeds, pulled over after 2 more miles. Would not idle without help, needed 1000 rpms to keep running. Got under and could here that main bearing clanking at 750 rpms. Can start it now with a little effort.

I'm going to pull the oil pan tonight and see if there's shavings everywhere or not.

 

[Chef]

Depending on skill and comfort level of the one doing the work, it is possbile to drop the pan and replace bearings without pulling the motor. Until you start pulling main caps and see what the crank looks like, it is impossible to say if this is a workable solution.

 

[Ranski]

We tore into it a little the other night with the help of a Cruiserhead he bumped into at a coffeshop here in town. I guess he use to work in some guys cruiser shop in Alaska...mentioned this guy writes alot for the TT in the tech section.

Anyway, we discovered the compression in the middle two cylinders were in the 80's. So they pulled the valve cover to get a peek at the valves then pulled the head to get a look at the cylinders. There was a little scaring, but not much.

They were going to drop the pan this weekend and take a peek at the crankshaft, pistons, rings and bearings.

I'll report back on their progress.

 

[theSherpa]

that's a motor in dire need of a rebuild.

the guy with the shop in Alaska is Mark Whatley, he's a mechanical wizard what's the name of the guy your friend met in the coffeeshop?

Steve

 

[Ranski]

the guy with the shop in Alaska is Mark Whatley

That's it!

His name was Justin...didn't catch his last name. I told him about TAC and he indicated he'd be interested in going with us on one of our outings to ride shotgun. He has three LC's (40, 55 and 60) but none of them are built for the trail.

He lives in midtown KC near UMKC.