Rep Power: 256

wsup. my buddies d17a2 spun a rod bearing yesterday. the thing is, his motor was bone stock just intake/header/exhaust and he spun the bearing on a canyon run. he was soon going to prep it for turbo but now his rod bearing spun. he recently changed his oil with castrol syntec [full synthetic] 10w40 300 miles prior. he said he has been using 10w40 since day one on his car (first owner) and it has been fine. he says reason for running 10w40 is that in vegas hot weather, the oil tends to thin out very quickly because of high temperatures. the motor has 86xxx miles on it all miles of which 10w40 was used. whats the deal? how could a bone stock motor spin a rod bearing?? he limped the car 5 miles to get out of the canyon where it got towed home. how bad do you guys think the damage is?

 
Rep Power: 381

1) It's typically caused by heat. I'm certain he was beating the crap out of the car around turns at high RPM levels

2) It has nothing to do with stock vs modded. It has to do with a lack of oil on the bearing creating heat typically.

3) There is no way to tell how bad the damage is until you take it apart. Might be able to replace the bearing, then again, you could have aluminum shavings all over that damn engine.

I did the same thing a few years back. I bought a new motor for $350 and 9 hours later I was back on the road.

 
Rep Power: 345

thats not bone stock....
my 02 spun a bearing with just and intake. nothing else. its happend. and i was full synthetic too

 
Rep Power: 425

its not a german car, why the hell was he using 10-40? "Its hot outside" is not a valid reason. 5-30 is good to 300F. It can be 100 out and you could go to the race track, stand on it for 15 minutes and not overdo that.
Bottom line is he was ragging it hard with oil that was too thick to get in everywhere and the thing finally gave out.
Buy a new motor, run the correct oil viscosity (5-20 or 5-30) and it shouldnt happen again.
The bearing clearances are .0007-.0017". Its a tiny clearance. They tell you run a specific oil for a reason, so do it.


They can just give out.... you make a ton of them you'll end up with a few bearings that will give out early, just statistically, but this one seems to me like it was helped along.

 
Rep Power: 256

hmmmm.. interesting. so basically just too much stress on the motor? oil was too thick and it was very hot due to touge style driving? my buddy works at a bearing shop so maybe he could make 'race' bearings for him combined with ARP rod bolts? or should honda oem rod bearings be fine with ARP rod bolts? can he replace just 1 bearing or should he replace all? we took out the motor yesterday and we were looking around forever on to how to identify which rod bearings to purchase. i searched on how to identify them and read the info but call me dumb but i still dont get how to do it. lol.

 
Rep Power: 298

well considering i've seen 500+ hp b series turbo setups with oem bearings, he might be ok if he decides to put the correct oil in the thing. Bottom line is the oil molecules were too big to get in the tight clearances these motors have. Not only that is the oil pump was designed to pump the thinner 5-30 etc. Trying to push the thicker oil takes a toll on the pump. Buy a new motor, save the other for spare parts or something. Those bearing particles get everywhere and the motor really should be completely taken down and hot-tanked, and everything mic-ed out. After a 5 mile drive with a spun bearing you won't find it to be a quick fix.