Thread: Advice Please
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Old 04-28-2017, 05:55 PM   #3
Jamesp
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Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Houston
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I'll start off by saying that I agree with JFP 99.9%. But there is that 0.1 percent sliver of hope, and by the description you gave, you qualify.

I rebuilt a 2003 3.2 after a catastrophic engine failure. Because I'm in the do it yourself class, and not in the professional mechanic class, I can take chances a do it yourselfer can, and a professional could not. I know of one do it yourselfer who took an engine from a flood car, drained the water out of it, put oil in, and its running just fine. . I rebuilt mine without an ultrasonic cleaning, yet there was little residual metal in the oil first change, as expected none getting past the filter, then none.

So what you *might* be able to do is simply change the IMS bearing and clean as much of the metal out of the oil as possible.

The quick version of doing this is to set the timing to zero (you'll know if you dropped timing at this point)

Check the IMS shaft for damage. What you are looking for is if the locking ring in front of the bearing is still serviceable. In the unlikely (but possible) case that it is, you can simply source a new 6204 steel ball bearing and replace the failed bearing. You can buy a 6204 ball bearing over the internet for $10 to $20us. I'd suggest a Nachi high temp full contact Viton seal bearing, but that's just me.

You'll need to drop the pan and clean as much metal out of the engine as you can. Using rare-earth magnets and a shop vac with a tiny hose to get into small areas is needed.

If you go this route, if it is even possible to go this route, you are still likely to have metal embedded in the chain ramps unless you change them, and you will need to do several quick oil changes as well as use magnets on the outside of the drain pan and oil filter housing to pull residual metal out of the oil.

This may be possible based on the limited run time after failure. If so it will be the cheapest option. With a fully sealed IMS bearing a little metal in the oil doesn't bother me. If it gets past the oil filter during bypass on a cold start up that is a problem so it is important to get it out of the engine through dropping the sump and through quick oil changes. With an open IMS bearing, metal in the oil will get into the bearing and the bearing will fail quickly. Do not use an open bearing in this engine.

Don't expect this advice from a professional mechanic, it is nowhere near the safest option to choose, just the cheapest if it works. Professionals cannot risk their reputation with failed engines, and this is definitely a crap shoot.

A more surefire, but more costly option is to source a used engine. Then change the bearing before installing the engine.

Tearing down and rebuilding your current engine will be both expensive (I stopped counting at $2000us in parts) and the mechanic has to have experience in the M96 engine. They are very different to work on and can be broken if not dis-assembled and re-assembled properly.

Best of luck.
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