Some may remember I've been dicking around with an 03 TB that developed a rod knock and 80K. Was a pain in the ass to drop the front end gear just to get at the oilpan. What I found was a fused set of factory inserts that had been serving as part of the journal. In as much as the rod was rotating around the bearing, the dogs or keys on the inserts had sheared so the bearing was rotating inside the rod bore. Funny shit huh? BTW I replaced with a .10 over set and didn't mike the journal. Well that lasted a couple thousand miles and the TB was back in. This time I borrowed a mike and found the journal was past its out of round limit. Also the piston seemed to slide up and down the bore fairly easy. Now were talking a rebuild. Pull the engine, blueprint the bottom, holes, pistons, pins, rings and head + 24 DOHC valves. Lucked out and found a
2004 LL8 in a wreck with 60k miles on it. Started it up sounded great and had the salvage yard pluck it. They wanted 800 + 100 core. I said ok. I had to eat the patch job but made 750 labor on the pluck and swap. I had to tear down the front end, remove the air conditioner condenser and even the oil pan drain plug just to pull the old. I never had any pussy that was that tight of a squeeze. Took a day to put everything back together. The 04 motor was identical to the 03. Even used the 03 wiring and computer on the 04 swap.I learned my lesson on this one. Mike that shit and don't try to do anyone any favors.