2006 VZ LY7 Engine bearings. engine scraping and oil pressure drops to 0.

[neilmh]

I picked up 2006 VZ LY7 with timing chain issues and a fairly gunked out engine. I've done the timing chains, the pickup tube o-ring, changed the oil pump, cleaned out most of the gunk and flushed the engine multiple times. The car runs but after you drive it for maybe 2-3 minutes it will make a scraping noise and the oil pressure will drop to 0, it will then come back and drive for another 10-20 seconds, oil pressure returns and the car sounds normal before doing the same thing again.

Oil pressure is fine when you first turn the car on and idle. It can idle for about 20 minutes before the oil pressure will drop. I've checked the oil pressure with a manual gauge as well and it's showing the same as the sensor. As I've had no success fixing it, I decided to break the engine down further and was looking at the main bearings and conrod bearings and they look to be fairly damaged. One of the conrod bearings has deep scratches in it. It looks like there is a fair bit of oil burn on some of the bearings too. I've also flushed out the oil galleries now and there was a bit of gunk in there.

Could the bearings being in the condition they are in be causing these intermittent issues?

 

[trel]

That scraping is clearly oil starvation running it multiple times hasn't helped the situation. Bottom end is farked.

 

[neilmh]

That scraping is clearly oil starvation running it multiple times hasn't helped the situation. Bottom end is farked.

Engine was already making the noise when I first got it, so damage was already done.
Would the bearing damage be causing the intermittent issues? If it was completely gone I would have thought the oil pressure issues and engine noises would have been there consistently even when idling.

 

[troy sv6]

doubt it would b e from the bearing wear.