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Well Paul and I dig into the car a little tonight. It was a shorter experience than I was hoping for. Once we got the timing cover off we found that my oil pump is seized up. We put a 24in breaker bar on it and it wouldn't budge. So before I go any further i have some phone calls to make tomorrow and see what i can find out.

Time for me to change attitudes. Thinking positive. The crank turns over, the cams move, looking inside the valve cover there were no metal shavings, the one cam lobe we could see looked good and smooth, the tops of the pistons don't looked damaged.

So it could be worse

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Do u have ur balance shafts deleted? If so with the stub shaft or the actual race shaft?

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Yes they're deleted and I'm not sure. Whatever map uses on their stage 2 shortblock

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Hmmm ive seen a couple of those stub shafts fuck up pumps and lock up thats why all mitsus beuilt at my work get the race shaft id look into that

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That's a good idea. Something I will definitely consider

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So last weekend I pulled the oil pump. I found that it appears that the stub shaft locked up causing the oil pump to lock up. There was some metal in the oil but it was very minimal. I'm going to try and get the 1st rod and main cap pulled tonight to double check the bearings.

If the bearings are good the plan will be to replace the oil pump and put a new oem timing belt on and do a compression test and leak down test to see how the valves are doing.

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Wow that sucks. Hopefully you don't have a lot of damage.

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Yeah it is what it is. Preliminary inspections are looking promising. I'm hoping for just a T-belt and oil pump but there is a good chance there is valve damage and maybe bearings too

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So I pulled the first main cap and the #1 rod bearing cap so they could look better and they could look worse. They feel smooth when you run your fingernail across them lightly. Realistically they are probably useable. I'm not 100 percent sure what I'm going to do with them yet. Anyways on to the pics. Feel free to share your opinions on what to do with the bearings.

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I am no expert but that looks similar to ones I see online of people replacing...

Like I said, no expert and take it with a grain of salt. If you can't feel the scratches I am sure it will work but might be better off replacing I guess.

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God, bearings are one of those things that are so hard to tell the condition by pictures. You almost have to see them to tell.

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They look pretty nice I saw them I'd reuse them if it were mine

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Yeah i agree. But these only have 600 miles on them. It sucks lol. I dunno It's kind of a crap shoot right now

Yeah i agree. I dunno lol.

I just tend to be overly paranoid.

Well onto some positives. The cylinder walls look just about perfect. the rod and main journals on the crank look perfect. So i dont know what to do with the bearings right now. My overly paranoid self wants to just replace them but I don't want to pull the engine and replacing them in the car looks like a biotch to do.

Right now I'm just sick of working on the car, I'm sick of spending money on it, I'm just plain burnt out on the car right now. I just want it working . Idk I guess we'll see.

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Rod bearings are easy and cheap enough to replace, and those look a little worse from pics compared to the mains. But as goodhart said, really hard to tell from pics. Maybe check all the mains and make sure they're good and just do the rod bearings?

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That's a good idea. The rods are easy enough to replace

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The other thing I never thought of did u take one of the upper rod bearings out? There usually the ones that take the worst beating the upper rod bearings and lower mains

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From the pictures you posted, you are still on the first layer, for most of the bearing surface on all the bearings in the picture. It safe at this point to just reuse all the bearings.

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I have not. I can check the next time I'm over there

I hope so. So far quite a few people have said they are useable. So I'm either going to replace the rods and use the mains or just reuse the rods and mains for this summer then pull the engine and replace all of them next winter.

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I agree with simulated. It looks like the break in coating is worn off. Not sure what you're paranoid about. Especially if you can't feel anything with your nail.

Run a good, heavy oil if you're worried.

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paranoid that the will cause a problem. I just over think things. Bearings will be reused. And it will be using to a good heavy oil.

Anyone have any opinions on switching to synthetic before 1k miles? I'm thinking about switching to synthetic when I get it up and running. Is 625 miles too soon?