ITT: Your opinion on if I should use this block / lolOPG's
 

My cam decided to snap the bolt and dowel pin that holds the sprocket on and I found a local intake cam.

EDIT: Turns out the cam was seized. The cam is fucked, cam bearing is destroyed.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net...6_476434_n.jpg

1. I drained the oil and I didn't see any shavings.
2. Ripped the head off, small scuff marks on the sides of the cylinder walls, but finger scratch test passes.
3. Everything looks cool in the block so far.

Would you guys just slap a head on and drive it/track it? I'm actively looking for a 1.8 head to slap on, but I'm obviously a little worried about cam shavings being in the block and taking out any of the other bearings or the turbo as well. I'm not entirely sure what caused this and I'm afraid that maybe oil wasn't getting to the head. I was idling at 10-15 psi oil pressure when warm though, so I'm not sure if this is a valid concern.

If everything goes right, I'll have a block with forged internals going in sometime early next year.

It'll be fine.

I see you have a 99 swap. Check the clearances, but you should be good to go.

You probably know this already but don't mix up the cam caps.

No machining required. Make sure you check/reset the lash, though.

Lol, cam bearing was fucked and seized the cam. Oh well.

Bump because thread title/original post change and didn't think a new thread was necessary.

Well, that blows.

The only place that those shavings would go is into the head, and then down through the block drains and into the pan. If you want to be paranoid, you could rinse the oil drains in the block, but I'd probably just do an oil change and call it good.

Contact a good machine shop and see what they can do about that head. I don't know whether it would be possible to weld up the journal and bore that set of caps or not.

Hmm. What I'm trying to figure out is why this happened in the first place. I'm debating ordering an oil pump from rock auto and throwing that in as well. I suspected a faulty OP relief valve but I'm not sure of the symptoms of one going bad, and it doesn't seem like a replaceable part. My ~15 psi at idle was making me a little worried. When I started the car in the morning there would always be a short delay before I got oil pressure, and the head would make all kinds of noise. This all started after I put the turbo on, which makes sense. I never remembered HEARING the lifters until I put the turbo on.

I'm not too fond of the idea of putting another head on only to have the same thing happen.

Taking this head to a friend and seeing if he can work some magic with it. Maybe I'll use it on my next build.

Upon further inspection of said block:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net..._3336366_n.jpg
:ugh:

That kinda hurts.

And you still got oil pressure with that pump? How?

I didn't I guess. My last look at the gauge was about a 1/2 mile before it happened and it was fine. No warning.

Well, I think that I would tear apart the engine and inspect after seeing the OPG. Also buy a boundary assembly. I think it is cheaper insurance than the pain of building a whole new engine.

BE pump and forged internals are going into a block that I'm going to be building. I just need something to drive around for right now. School starts in a couple weeks.

I was worried about shavings or pieces of the gears but when I took the pump off I realized I could see the oil galley that feeds directly into the oil filter. Looked clean and I may rip apart the filter to make sure.

Ouch. Bottom end might be ok still, if your lucky.

Heh, faulty relief valve or something, yeah. :D OEM harmonic balancer? Power? How far were you revving it?

:facepalm:
Yep, OEM balancer, not sure on power but was running a really conservative spark map (DIYautotune basemap pretty much), and 7-10 psi (had boost creep and overboost protection at 10 psi). Redline was set at 7300, and I havn't hit the track yet so I wasn't seeing much above 6000 rpm around town.

I'm either unlucky or I suck (I put this block together). Or both.

Very interesting. I've never heard of the gears just randomly shattering like that - it's always in conjunction with an underdrive pulley, big RPM, or huge power. The only other thing I could think of would be if you somehow broke a main bolt/cap - in the motor that I broke two main caps in, the oil pump was super fucked up (cracked housing, but BE gears were intact).

Yes, but a main cap/bolt breaking is something that also apparently comes along with big power, which I am not running.

Its back in the car now, and I'm hoping that you're wrong. :ugh2: