edmiston9

I'm not absolutely sure what type of blasting media it was but there are full, clear beads in the oil filter shell about 1mm in diameter. There are also remnants of the blasting media all throughout the engine and clearly in the oil pan and draining back onto the metal plate of the oil pan from above, presumably crushed from the oil pump. See the two images below. I know the beads didn't make their way into the bearings since they weren't scoured, but what I do know is that the oil channels were blocked such that the whole short block toasted itself so bad that the block is unusable. So, what I was trying to do with a vacuum tester is get an idea how much pressure (negative in this case) would it take to draw the crushed blasting media and oil mixture thru a hole the same size as the oil delivery passages. I know the bypass valve pressure of the oil filter and I know the filter had crushed media in it, so if the filter was clogged and the bypass opened then the slurry of crushed media and oil made it's way into the oiling system. On a cold start (10*F) I know the viscosity was quite high and that's when the oil light came on and then the engine went kaboom! So yeah, the vacuum test isn't perfect, but in small claims the judge may want some pressure data. I'd rather be more prepared than not.

Car never overheated and the oil was drained after the heads were put back on so not likely that coolant was in the oil either. Texan, sorry I wasn't as forthcoming as I should have been with my age. Kinda odd that you check that though. I'm guessing you don't have the answer?

So I've got a 2002 outback ej25 that got it's oiling system clogged one way or another. I contend that it was due to left over blasting beads in the heads from the machine shop. What I need to know, but can't find with searching, is what size the oil holes in the crank are. I'd like to run a test on the oil I saved from the blown engine and see how much vacuum pressure is required to suck the oil thru a hole of the same size as the crank oil hole. I checked the repair manual and have looked all over the internets for the answer but can't even come up with the size of an over-sized hole. Any one have any ideas?