Bruce,
That the oil pump is also a mess seems to suggest it was attempting to pump
some metal or grit at some point. My guess is that the bearing that was
such a mess is the first thing to receive the oil that the pump sends up.
The bearings are soft enough to absorb a certain amount of grit, and so much
of what got pumped may not have gone farther than the first bearing that the
grit reached.
I know a guy who started up his freshly rebuilt Austin-Healey engine only to
hear some weird sounds inside. It seems that a dirt dobber had built its
muddy home in the oil galley while the engine was sitting in the garage
waiting for the rest of its components. Nasty little bug. The engine
needed all new bearings.
Has this engine ever been rebuilt before? If so, did the rebuilder clean
off all the junk left over from machining?
John Paul Middlesworth
1966 TR4A
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