I have taken a gander at the other threads about bearing failures and have a few points that need clarification.

First, what happened:

2000 Expedition with 200k+ miles spun the number eight rod bearing before literally pancaking the shells on top of each other. One of them squirted between the four-eight rods while the other worked into the number four journal area. At one point the engine was locked due to this.

My friend -who owes the truck- tried to do a simple bearing swap to baby the engine into next tax season when she would get the money to replace the whole thing. When the bearing lock happened she finally called me in to figure out what went wrong. Just loosening one of the cap bolts on the number four freed the crank and the engine would turn by hand. Once I got that cap off I could see scoring on the journal and that where the eight rides is about a solid tenth of an inch smaller and extremely rough.

So, after determining that the crank is good as a paperweight and not much else, I ordered a kit. I also snagged me a water pump and timing cover gaskets alongside the rear main since the crank is coming out.

What I need is a good, fairly easy way to swap the crank. She is insisting the A/C piping is in the way of ganking the engine out and I'm not about to even try an in-frame on a fifty pound piece of steel that wants to fall down on my head.

How much work does it take to get the engine out? I know the front billet and radiator need to go for space, but what about the A/C components? Can the condenser be moved out of the way? The Compressor? Yes, this vehicle has dual-zone climate control (front/rear) so the piping is kinda funky in shape.

Ah, yes, the back end . . . how difficult is it to drop the tranny/transfer case for a little more maneuvering room?



Rather long winded I know, so I'll sign off here.

 

As a side note: Every post I have seen says to use 5W-20 and nothing else, yet the owner's manual for her Expedition and her roommate's F150 (same engine class) say 5W-30. I know there's not much difference between the two but would like that clarified as well.

 

These engines originally called for 5W-30, but at some point Ford changed the recommendation to 5W-20. You can use either. Quite honestly, these engines don't really care one way or the other.

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Good to know. My friend has a thing for Quaker-State synthetic High Mileage 5W-30 and a Purilator Classic filter.

Think that could have contributed to the issue?

 

Update on the Expedition:

Somebody explain this one to me.

I pulled the engine out and put it on a stand. Removed the rod caps and found another spun bearing (making rods 1, 3, 7 and 8 victims). In the process of pulling the crank, found that the driver-side (right hand facing the engine, above oil filter) timing chain guide had broken at some point letting the chain strike and chew into the oil pump -possibly the original source of debris in the oil. Heaved the fifty pound paperweight out and found that the number one main bearing had spun and two through four were destroyed while the number five -rear main- looked almost new.

Huh? We hadn't even touched the mains until this point, having found the rod journals to be toast.

I also examined the oil pump. By this I mean a complete disassembly and found the internal bypass channel (the little one that looks like a hydraulic seal) was plugged with gung/debris/metal and that the pressure regulator had a possible weak spring. As a temporary fix I stuck a washer as a spacer between the spring and end cap -not the spool end to prevent jamming.

So, float me your ideas folks. The number one main looked like the wrong bearing altogether as the oil slot was off to the side yet the feeder hole from the block is dead center.

Now comes the ultra-fun part: reassembly and reinstallation.



The main bearings

 

More than likely the new bearings will spin because the bore in the block gets enlarged or distorted. IMO that engine is done and needs to be completely disassembled and sent to a machine shop to get the mains resized if they even can be. Thats a lot of work to take a chance on just replacing bearings.

 

Its my understanding the main caps need to re-installed in the same positions as they were removed---these engines have such tight tolerances during manufacture this is a critical step.

I'm with LongBed on this one---it needs to visit the machine shop first.

 

This one can't be saved. If a main bearing has spun in the block that calls for a line bore. And complete rebuild. It will be cheaper to pick up a decent salvage engine.

 

Today marks the death keel of this engine. I had continued my research while putzing around with this thing and came across the nice factoid that the camshafts don't actually have 'bearings', they just ride on a polished surface with the oil pressure being the only thing preventing the hard metal surfaces from touching.

So I flipped the engine upright, got the covers off then the cam caps and found:




RUT ROH! The six on the left are from the right bank head (passenger) while the right six are from the left (driver).

Grooved cam races. Uh-oh. Then I found a shattered cam sprocket (done so, I believe, when the stand dumped the engine):





Of course it's an integrated sprocket! No luck left in this thing . . .

So, finding all of this madness the owner and I decided that the heads had to go. Well, NO BEUNO!





Right bank (passenger side)





Left bank (driver side)

. . . yeah, this thing is a paperweight to the nth degree. We have learned much in this teardown though, like how a broken piece of plastic (timing guide) letting the chain strike the oil pump can put just enough metal in the oil stream to cause a complete destruction of the internals.

So, for those browsing this thread, beware metal in the oil! DO NOT let it go for any length of time! If you don't have the money to fix it as soon as you find the issue park it! Trust me, it'll be far cheaper than the $1100 plus ARGH this is turning into.