Small block crankshaft endplay

AJ/FormS said

At half an inch, it would have been making a lot of noise for a long long time. It was eating the rear cam boss the whole time, so you'll be looking at fixing that when the engine comes out. And Ima thinking the crank will be toast and maybe the bulkhead itself. When mine did that; I had just won a gate-prize of a 30gallon drum of ATF . After the oil was all gone,lol, I finally pulled the engine.

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I think your right, for a long time it was making a noise, almost like a grinding/chaifing noise. Because it always had a steering pump and steering gearbox issue leaking heavily I think he chalked it up to being from there. But seeing now the endplay in the crank, I think it's what he was hearing. With the issues it had, it has been parked in the shop for the past six months or so, I think we just forgot about the noises until now.