[TedEaton]

Story 1:
Had a 454 Chevy in the shop for balancing. Noticed it had been stamped 010, 020, and 030 on the crank for rod journal grinding. The 030 for the rod journals was the fresh one at this point. Upon cleaning up the crank after balancing, I ran a brush through all the oil holes for cleaning and found one of the oil holes to a rod journal was not drilled all the way through. it was simple enough to finish drilling it. I asked the customer if the same rod journal was always giving the problem and they hadn't paid attention but they mentioned that the engine was having to be worked on at 10-15K mile intervals. The only oil that particular rod bearing was getting was the residual from the bearing next to it but it does show you how long a bearing can survive without direct oiling in a non-performance application. That same engine now has many miles on it now and still going strong.

Story 2:
On a 327 SBC steel crank, I've found the oil hole to the front journal intersecting the factory lightening hole in that same throw. That rod was not getting any oil pressure and was only getting residual oil from the oil being thrown into the hollow journal hole. This was not a low mileage engine. The 'oil starved' rod bearing was distressed but not failed. In this case, I simply junked that crankshaft and went with another.