115 crossflow bearings issue

[And-Con]

ok i have a 115 cross flow v4, actually i basically have two, but that's more or less irrelevant. The roller bearing under the flywheel(CRANKCASE HEAD AND BEARING ASSY according to brp) has basically self destructed, of the two rows of rollers, one was completely gone, metal chips falling out, the engine would not even turn over things were so messed up. so I've removed the bad bearing, and have another from the spare, one, is it OK to reuse the one from the spare, two, what would cause this, is it something that just replacing the bearing would remedy, or do i have to figure out what caused the problem? with the bearing removed, its turning over freely, although i am concerned about chips in the crank. thank you in advance for any advice you can give.
And-Con

 

[Dhadley]

Re: 115 crossflow bearings issue

First you'll need to clean out any debris from the bad bearing. Fortunately the particles are magnetic. Now, you have to figure out why the bearing failed. Did you find rusted pieces of bearing?

 

[Chinewalker]

Re: 115 crossflow bearings issue

Did the bearing damage the crankshaft at all? If so, that might preclude a simple replacement of the bearing...

 

[Faztbullet]

Re: 115 crossflow bearings issue

If the crank has ANY dings,dents,dimples,chip and not perfectly smooth the crank needs to be replaced or the replacement bearing will fail. I have had several V-6 's this year with same problem and 2 V-4's and 1 V-6 with lower bearing failures. The only thing the engines had in common was owners where running cheap fuel(Kroger/Wal-Mart/HomeDepot) and Seafoam/Red Stabil fuel additives.

 

[And-Con]

Re: 115 crossflow bearings issue

the bearing was rusted which would tend to lead me to one of two conclusions-seal failure, or submersion(which would probably have overwhelmed the seals and led to seal then subsequent bearing failure) now can i assume that all three bearings are close to going and that while i have the engine pulled, bite the bullet, split the block, and change out all three, or am i OK to change out the bearing and run it as is-i said earlier that i have basically two engines, what i would like to do is to get this one running, rebuild the second, swap them, and then do whatever with this one?