I'm thinking a known good one mate.
Not sure what else it could be tbh.
I can't quite remember fully but the bearings in main cap closest to the oil pump seemed alittle worn compared to the others when I removed them. Stupidly I didn't picture them and just went straight to sorting it out.
Perhaps this proves my bent crank theory after all and I was too blind to even think about it? I should find out with the new bearings when I take the crankshaft back out....Or I'm making stuff up in my mind now lol
Imbalance? The Pistons and rods all weighed the same within 0.5grams and with the fluidampr you'd expect it to atleast slow the wear down, it's exactly the same as it was before so I'm doubting that.
Perhaps the cranks got too much wear on the thrust faces and it's moving in and out too much, kissing the housing of the oil pump?
Cam caps out of alignment? You wouldn't have thought so with how well the b16b crank ran inside it but back to my bearing story above i suppose it's possible?
Main cap bolts over stretched from being reused? I'll replace them with the new crankshaft to rule that out but I doubt it tbh.
Trying to find all possible avenues to explore as I've only got 15weeks till I leave for Germany.
I do feel the crankshaft or atleast the bottom half of the bottom end(if that makes sense?) is too blame, be it the crank, the bearing caps alignment or the bolts I don't know.
This engine is basically trial and error now tbh.
Been to two machine shops, one I don't trust and the other was telling me the last failure was due to dirt ingress, clearly wasn't.....