In my previous post I showed a photo of my MGB camshaft thrust plate bolts falling out due to bad installation. Fortunately this didn’t damage the camshaft or at least doesn’t appear to have damaged the camshaft. There is some odd wear so I will have it checked out.
Here’s the real bummer! The idiot that put the engine together didn’t torque one of the connecting rods so it’s been breaking down since the rebuild and distributing fine metal shavings through the engine. When I initially took the crankshaft to the machinist he insisted that the bearing went because of a lack of oil. On showing him the connecting rod he figured the mechanic went for a beer half way through the rebuild and just didn’t torque the rod at all. I was wondering why the bolts were so easy to remove.
Well, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that the crankshaft was ground and is now likely better than new. The bad? I now have to source an old connecting rod and likely have all 4 reground and balanced. This also means a complete engine rebuild so I’m presently stripping the block down completely.
What else can go wrong?
[…] whether the folks that rebuilt the engine cleaned it at all. I’ve documented some of the horror stories […]