Breathing new life into the 318 in the Scamp!

I used another crank that was freshly turned .010"

The only thing that was done to the rods were on the small end, with wrist pins/ piston assemblies pressed on.

It didn't have any awkward vibration. The stock cranks used a set bob weight as did the rods. They weren't paired at the factory, but rather all built to the same tolerances.

The original crank that goes to these rods is out of the car. I still have it and I plan on having it cut .010"/.010" so I can use the clevite mains if they inspect ok and don't have embedding issues when i pull the parts from the bottom end.

I have another set of stock rods from a 360. I'm debating on robbing one of them and balancing the big and little ends against the damaged rod and make it the same.

The more I think about this, the more research I do on bimetal aluminum bearings and talk to engine builders I know, the more it sounds like a hardware issue to me.

There are things that I don't like about the aluminum bearings. They don't last as long, but are more tolerant of shape shift from RPM and heat, less tolerant to embedding, making them less desirable for flat tappet and carbureted engines that need oldschool oil and more frequent changes than today's engines. But better for race applications.

I didn't have a gauge on it, but I think if it were an oil issue, it would have shown up on break in. The light never came on, but those are worthless, anyway.

I think I'm going to run an oil pressure gauge from a block feed, when it goes back in. I have a factory unit that is accurate, that will look spot on in the dash, but I may just put an auxilary aftermarket one in for now, until I know everything is money and jack with the dash later.

I'm going to inspect the chamfer on the bearings, compared to some originals that I have that were in the car. One thing that a friend brought up was that they may have been cut for a different fillet, but nothing felt goofy going together. I could spin it by hand on assembly with the pistons in and no breaker bar.

Another thing that was brought to my attention, from a friend who built a 440, was that he had a knocking issue with the engine that was being caused by the floating pin locking up from heat, on a tight wrist bore on the piston. I know these are press fit with no retainers, but the same thing could have happened on the little end, where the piston rocks on the pin, from heat.

Forensics.