Not too sure just how that gunk got in there. That motor was torn almost all the way down, and was clean when it was buttoned up....so I am at a loss on this.

Well no I didn't, but the gunk wont effect it untill it has been running for a while (on the first motor it was about 45 minutes to an hour for it to lost pressure), when the motors not running obviously the pump stops sucking so the gunk settles down in the pan, then when the motor starts it begins to stick to clog screen.

Anyway heres the stuff from yesterday:
Got her out and started the teardown...

Had to jack up the car an inch or two so the hoist would fit but other than that things went well:








Dad and his projects, He was waiting for me to get this done and give him his Garage space back






Found this in the intake though, two of them had protrusions but he rest were dead near perfect, no biggie, its gonna come out again anyway







Todays findings:
We found that the balance shaft has a some play in it, up/down/left/right play, bearings on the front are likely worn but the play is coming from the back it seems like.

When you rotate the push rods, i forget how many have it but about 6 i think, you can rotate them and feel a bump, seems like they stopped rotating and started to wear out a spot.

The rocker on the #2 cylinder looks like one side stopped rotating, its the only one that looks like this:



There was more on there before the picture, dad picked it off, but it was just a bit smaller than a quarter size blob of gunk on the screen in the center.




Bottom of the pan


Scraped out of the pan:


Main bearing on the front is worn out, not really surprised here.


Rod bearing cap, (we only checked the #1 rod for now since I'm gone during the week , so I'm not wondering all week what stuff looks like), They aren't worn to the copper but it is scuffed really bad, none of the several pictures we took came out great but heres a couple that came out the best of the bunch:

Has anyone happened to have ever taken out the Balance Shaft :?

I'm slightly confused as to how that comes out. Front/Back? Just beat it out?
Not too worried about it I don't guess. The guy at the machine shop can do it if we can't.

Doesn't it come out the same way as the cam?

That'* some pretty good metal slurry you got going on there.

We are actually looking at a remanufactured 3800 now :?

I'll get the pictures up later if you're interested. #'* 1 and 2 Rods had .018" (#1) and .020" (#2) of side to side play. They should be between .003-.015. All the rest of them checked out good. We forgot to check the thrust bearings...o well. The #3 Rod bearing did go for a ride and as a result the #3 lobe on the crank is trashed, the rest of the crank looked excellent. We found the front main bearing was about ready to go for a spin as well the little tab had started to break. The front cam bearing, well what bearing Complete scuffed copper! We're not sure which crank is worse between the original motor and this one. The original one is a little scuffed on each lobe, the new-er one is clean but the #3 lobe is toast.

Found out the Balance shaft needs to be beat out, the machine shop can deal with it...

Right now the list is as follows (If I can remember it all...)
-Pistons & Rings (.030 over, the block is gonna need it)
-Crank Kit & Bearings
-Cam bearings
-Possibly a Cam (not sure if this one checks out yet)
-Oil pump
-Push rods
-Timing chain
-Balance shaft & Bearings
-Resized rods (we got plenty to choose from though)
-Gasket set (of course)

Or we get a remanufactured 3800, about $1600... and dad can get 5% off

Not exactly sure what were gonna do at the moment. This morning we got it all the way apart (BTW Wren, I found another 11mm bolt, the Rod Caps ). The rest of today is sorting parts and cleaning up the garage. Then tonight or tomorrow I'll try to price out everything parts wise, and call the machine shop on Monday and get an estimate. Then decide what road we'll take.

Yikes, man. I definitely vote for a reman motor. ( or a L67 swap lol)

If you are going to rebuild it yourself, or even get a reman, go with an L67 shortblock. That way, you will have the beefier pistons when the time comes for you to up-the-ante, so to speak.

I'm sorry that this turned out the way it did

It would be an Advance Autoparts Motor, the president of our local car cruise-in club runs the advance store in town.

the $1600 included the $400 core charge. Do you think I could get a reman L27 /w L67 short block? Dad didn't think they'd allow that...one or the other. At the very least dad said if they did do that I likely wouldn't get anything back from a core charge since its two diff motors.

If I do go about rebuilding this i'll look into the L67 Pistons.

Beginning to wonder more about straight up saying hell and go with an L67 altogether
Price difference between the two, couple hundred?
What else would need to change for that to work? Wire Harness and PCM...and the Trans would have to go HD...that has to be rebuilt anyway...

more to think about