Yes, and engine started to die shortly after the transmission swap, and that'* when the flex plate was changed.

Dan . after looking at the brgs and other parts . take the flex plate and mount it on a wheel balancer with the cone on the inside of flex plate it has the taper and retest for run out , caution only spin by hand . just a thought

that sucks man, you spent so much time on it... wouldnt be better/cheaper to buy a used engine from a junk yard?

Interesting stuff you are looking/checking Dan. I've never had the need/desire to do it and probably would have blown the next one if that'* the case.

OK, tore it all apart and here'* what I found

First drained the brand new oil. Keep in mind this is after about 10 mins of running.


So I started to strip it down.


Not much left.


After I got the top stripped, I pulled the pan. Looks like a thin film of metal down there.


WAIT!!??!!?? What did I just see?

Well, well, well, what have we here?


Off with the rod bearings. Only fond one bad bearing, but none of them were spun.


Found a chip in the #3 main.




This is what I pulled out of the pan. Non magnetic, or very slightly magnetic, so it'* a bearing.


This was the worst rod bearing.


Still can't explain the chunks. The cam bearings look fine. 3 even had a bit of sludge build up on them, so there was no contact there, the front bearing looks good, smooth and shiny. Very odd.

Typically I don't pull the mains, but that chunk couldn't have just jumped out. That'* odd. I'd be inclined to think the shavings are from that rod bearing. It'* common and in line with what would normally be found.

Looks like #5 rod bearing is the bad one. Will post up some pictures a little later.

The bearings from #5 was still on the crank. This is the source of the metal in the pan.


You can see bits hanging off the edge.

That'* what mine looked like when I got it, except a lot dirtier.