Yikes!

 

Scoring of the cams and caps was very light and I got a thumbs up from the machinist.
I'll be checking the oil pump closely, and good point on the MIVEC system.

 

This one's Graphite Gray, but yeah some definitely needless abuse.

 

I finally got the block back from the machine shop and am making progress again.

The block was align bored and honed and according to the machinist is "better than new."

 

...

 

The oil pump checks out with amazingly little wear. The factory machining marks are still visible on the aluminum end plates.

I have found what appears to be a possible failure mode.

The two front oil passageways cast into the block had large amount of casting slag. The passage from the oil filter to the main bearing tunnel was the worst. I was able to easily chip out a tic tac sized chunk of slag that is hard as a rock.

A small piece of debris breaking loose from this location had nothing to slow its transit to a main bearing.

Suffice it to say that some die grinder work has rendered these passages quite clean and shiny.

I've not seen another engine with this much slag and it couldn't have been in a poorer location.

 

Nice to see this was a save! I was looking at one in NOVA, on Craiglist. Sure looks allot like it. It was a killer deal.

Nice to see it's coming back to life!

 

Here's a shot of slag that chipped out of the oil passage:

 

Some parts about to go back together . . .

 

. . . once I get a new one of these:

 

While cleaning the oil squirters and bolts, I found that the piston in one of the bolts was sticky and could be make to stick open as shown in the pics.

 

No you will NEVER get it clean enough simple as that!!
I also hope you did not have the crank turned as it wears the nitride coating off and is more prone to spinning a bearing again, I would have it polished at best and if it needs turned toss it for a std size virgin crank.

I lost a motor because of an oil cooler I thought I got clean enough

 

My motor also had poorly drilled oil passages, but unlike your previous owner, mine took the car to the dealer. After two instances of bearing spinning, new cranks, and complete bottom end overhauls they found the same issue that you have. My car was bought back on the Lemon by back law, and the entire engine was completely replaced. ( so I got an 03 in 09 with 28k on the chassis and 6k on the engine for realll cheap)

Is the car still under warranty? I guess it is to late now to go to the dealer. I would be aware though that just cleaning out the oil passages might not be enough...

I hope it all works out for you though!

 

The crank is a standard size, polished replacement.

I'm still up in the air over the cooler. How had you tried to clean it?

 

It is still under warranty, but with the things I've found missing and not hooked up, I don't think they would honor any engine coverage.

I am going to have to see about some caliper peeling though.