2-liter teardown

[GModelle@xxxxxxx]

Gentle Alfisti,
Last night I removed the sump on the damaged 2 liter that came with a GTV I 
bought to restore. The PO said it had a knock, so I was interested to see the 
internals to assess the damage. The sump was full of paper-thin bearing 
fragments, like shrapnel, some in pieces that seemed too big to be from a 
bearing shell. At first I thought the thrust bearings had disintegrated. Then 
I noticed that no. 3 rod bolts were almost completed undone and finger loose. 
The rod cap was noticeably discolored and misshapen. Removing it (man this 
motor was only a couple of revolutions from throwing a rod) indicated that 
the rod cap was cracked and there was only a thin fragment of the bearing 
left where it was supposed to be. Using a magnet (the block was upside-down 
on a stand) I removed an amazing amount of material, about half a cup full of 
bearing stuff, beaten flat. Pretty astounding. The part of this story that is 
equally impressive, and the reason for the post, is that the crank bearing 
seems to have suffered little in the way of damage. The crank rod bearing is 
smooth, without grooves to catch a fingernail, and mikes to exactly the same 
as an adjacent (good condition) bearing diameter. In anybodies experience, 
can an Alfa crank suffer this kind of extreme insult and remain useable? If I 
didn't hear otherwise, I might consider just polishing if all other factors 
warrant.

Thanks, Digest
modelle in Somers Point
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided