Engine building experts - what the??

Hey Gang,

So, for bad news, this is good news. I think...

Backstory - I built a Toyota 22RE for my '84 Celica project. .040 over, balanced crank. Otherwise, stock.

So I put it together. First time building an engine. Amazingly it started and ran... really well, in fact. Until it didn't. Probably put 3 or 400 miles on it. Took it in for the second oil change. Drained the oil, put in the new and a filter. Fixed a header gasket that was leaking while I was there. Everything got nice and cool. Started it to see if the header was sealed. Started fine. Shut down fine. Cleaned up my tools, went to start it to drive home and it wouldn't start. Engine was completely seized. Couldn't turn it either direction with a breaker bar on the crank.

So, out it came. Today I had 45 minutes to run over and finally get the oil pan off. I backed off the main bolts. Still wouldn't turn. I pulled the main caps. The bearings had a good bit of pitting and there was a good deal of metal in the oil pan and on the bearing faces. Crank will get checked out, but it looks fine to me. Just looking from the bottom, pistons look fine- no discoloration and the cylinder walls on a quick inspection seem to be fine.

I backed off the rod caps. Didn't remove them, just backed the bolts off. Then the engine turned! So something happened to a or some rod bearings. I'm guessing that's where the metal I'm finding came from.

Soooo - this has to be an oiling issue, right? I didn't find anything obviously wrong when I took the pan off. Half expected to find a problem with the pick up tube, but all looked to be well. It was on tight and had the right gasket- doesn't look like I screwed that up.

I'm going to have to figure out what I did wrong. I'm hopeful at this point that it's not going to be too bad to fix. Crank may be okay and if not, I have another. Cylinders and pistons look fine. But I'm not putting it together until I fiugre out what went wrong the first time.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks,

Ed

Remove and cut the oil filter open w/ tin snips near it's base, cut the filter pleats w/ knife at the base so it will unfold like an accordian and remove, open the pleats and see what's collected....babbit, shavings, RTV sealer etc. it'll end up there. First step in autopsy of this kind.

check the oil pump.... it sounds like it ran ok, and then when you went to change the oil......

so I'd check the pump and the pick up tube

I'd also remove the bearing caps and look @ the bearings... if it is just one... look to see if anything clogged the oiling route inside the crank

Was metal removal involved in the balancing of the crank ? check the oil passages. Plus what everyone said.

Thanks guys.

fasted58, one thing that sucks is I threw the old filter away after I changed the oil. So it's long gone. Filter that's on it only ran for the minute after the oil change when I was checking for leaks. Worth a look, I guess, but not like the other one would have been.

I already ordered a new pick up tube. I just had a feeling I'd find a problem there. I'll look the old one over really well, but I didn't see a problem. It was mounted nice and tight and had a gasket. So none of the mistakes I thought I might have made.

The crank was clean as could be when I got it back, but that's a good thought. I guess it would have been smart to go through all the oil passages, but I used a good machine shop and assumed it would all be good. I'll have a real good look.

In a way, I'm kinda happy. It looks like the cylinders and pistons will be fine. Main bearing areas look fine too. I was affraid I'd have to get another block and start over. Doesn't look like I'll have to do that. But sure want to figure out what happened.