Wow, I didn't think you'd have much time for this, but it'* great progress! Sorry to read about those pistons, but at least they make a good mobile when combined with a couple of coat hangers...

Congratulations on the experience (and fun) so far. Do you have any work restricting snow over there?

No snow here, and of the two times it did this year the snow came overnight and didn't last till about noon the next morning

Anywho, here we go. Main Bearings & Cam bearings; left to right is front to back:

Previous pictures showed the fron cam bearing was gone, you can kinda see the rest in the picture but the are all good. You can easily tell the front main bearing is gone, middle is still usable as is:


the other middle is still good too, and the bottom of the rear is mostly ok but worn out on the corner:


the caps, again, front and rear are trashed, middle two are still good:


Rod Bearings, all look good, there are scuff marks from the trash in the oil but none of them are worn out to the copper:














The crank looks good, aside from some scuffing cause of trash in the oil:










Dad said when he pulled these out one of the rods were backwards facing the wrong direction though all the pistons were correct the FSM says it doesn't matter but he has heard that it does, atleast for the older V8'* that he is used to working with. All of the pistons are no good, only the thrust side of each is scuffed, except the #6 piston which is scuffed on both sides...you cant really see it in the picture though:





Cylinder walls all look the same, you can see the scuffing here, also in the pictures above:





So the only thing we can think of is maybe the Crank-line bore is off/misaligned...
and the tensioner and balance shaft are putting stress on the cam

The 3800 doesn't have rods that need a specific orientation on the crank. Some V8 motors do because two rods share the same journal and are machined differently on the side where it touches the other rod. The 3800 has a single journal for every rod, and the rods are machined symetrically (even if the casting for the rod isn't symetrical.)

I doubt the block is line-bored wrong, wiping out bearings on the oil pump end of the oiling system would say to me that the motor ingested something into the oiling system...the first bearings in the system took the hit.

That is very possible too but from the way it looks with the front main AND rear bearings gone and the middle two left in great shape is looks like something was off. On the front end the bearing is wiped out on the block side and a part of the cap side is worn. On the rear main bearing the cap side is wiped out and the very edge of the block side of the bearing is showing a bit of copper.

We got new torx bits (I think thats what those star shaped heads are called) Because i broke the one we had on that third cam cover bolt. and it was the same deal for the oil pump bolts. Anyway we popped that open, it doesn't seem worn out much, the gears all looked fairly clean. We didn't open it u beyond that yet. Looks like it would have to have something in the oil to stop the flow, cause it doesn't look like it can lock up since its driven off the crank.

We have a friend we met over this past summer via classic car cruise in, (He has a '68 Firebird with a 421, its awesome) anyway, he'* an ASA Mechanic, used to work for Pontiac, his job was to diagnose the problem on the motors. He'* the one that tipped dad off about the tensioner causing stress on the cam bearings. He came over yesterday to have a look. He said he often had a 3800 come in that was losing oil pressure because the bearings were worn out. He said my motor looks exactly like what he had seen at the shop. He said the front main and cam bearings were worn because of the tensioner and the rear was worn possibly because of the trans. He didn't think the line bore was off, and that explains it more for us.

Well today half of that motor goes to the dump, oil pan, cam, lifters, timing chain & sprockets, push rods, front cover, and unless anyone wants any of the brackets or the heads, we'll hold on to them for about a week before we toss those.

Hmmm... heads... Are L27 and L67 heads interchangeable?

The project is stalled, the 'Busted - New Hotness' is ready to come out....

but we're waiting for a third engine stand :?

s1, yes.
s2, no

Yeah the rods definitely look in good shape.

Still waiting on the engine stand, lol. But its ready to come out besides the mounts and trans bolts.