[T3] Main bearings use to be BBbbrrrrrr!

[Dennis Stiefel]

In a message dated 1/8/2014 10:53:32 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
dlstiefel at dekalbk12.org writes:
 
When I got home this evening it had got up in the low 40s here so I  put a
1/2 " drive pull handle with socket to go on the bolt on the fan on  the
crankshaft.  I could turn it but with too much effort. It does  seem easier
than yesterday when it was 20 to 30 degrees colder but not that  much and
still not right. I don't remember any steel main inserts when all  this was
done.  I'm not ready to condemn my local guy yet who line  bored the case
yet.  I'm not saying he's perfect and could not make a  mistake. But he and
his business has been very respected in the VW  community here in northeast
Alabama for over 40 years. This being a rule  area you just can't do half
par work and stay in business for that  long.  Word of bad work goes quick
in small towns.  If there is  damage to the inserts it will be my fault. The
combo of a fresh tight  engine with 300 miles on it combined with the temps
and the weight of oil  was probably a bad series to put together.  I should
of never tried to  drive yesterday.  It will be in the 50s tomorrow and see
if it feels  loose enough to try to crank so maybe I might could get some
oil worked in  but I know it's a long shot and will probably have to drag
her to the  school drop and completely disassemble the engine and replace
the offending  insert and anything else we see. UGH!!!
 
 
I hate to be the 1 to say this Dennis, but you're probably going to want  
to drag it back to school, pull the engine and tear it down. If not, you 
won't  get a good nights sleep until you do.
 
I had a similar issue with my T-34 engine, in that it just stopped  running 
while sitting in the garage (was warming it up to do an oil change). I  
later found that a rag had gotten left inside by mistake, and plugged the
oil  
pick up. That caused oil starvation to #1 main bearing, and the engine 
locked  up. 
 
I was able to use a breaker bar to free it up, but I still pulled it out  
and tore it down. I did this mainly because I wanted to know what happened,

and so I could sleep better knowing it had been fixed. This happened to me 
in  the early summer of 2012, where temps were a lot warmer than earlier
this 
 week. But oil starvation, is still oil starvation. I got lucky in that I  
didn't damage the case, and only needed a new set of bearings and a crank  
polish to get things right again. I hope yours is equally as easy to  fix.
 
Bob 65  Notch S w/Sunroof and IRS aka Krusty
64 T-34 Ghia aka Wolfie
71  Square-vert under  construction

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Yes Bob I know you are probably right I just so hate to do it.  Most
everything was going so well to this point.  But you got to take the good
with the bad.

Dennis