Bummed, 944 with howling bearing

[TooManyWrenches]

My baby got the forbidden glitter! Ran great till it had a mysterious dip in oil pressure and then made horrible noise. Of course it was right after I rebuilt the A/C compressor (which then leaked!) on the test drive. And no, not related, just a coincidence. Drained the oil, and found glitter chunks of bearing and debris in the oil filter. Still had plenty of oil, not overheated, it just ... failed. Nice car overall, and its a blast to drive. If I don't go overseas for a new job I'll pull the engine and inspect, not gonna leave it in pieces for 2 years in the garage.
So, if I pull the motor and find more than just the bad bearing, like scored journals and cylinders, what do I do? If its just a blocked oil passage (motor was rebuilt(?) by previous owner, but I don't know much about his skills) or damaged bearing from the chocolate milkshake experience, I should be able to fix it; and I will. But serious damage? then maybe some kind of upgrade? (no smog test where I live, so many options)

[TooManyWrenches]

Or, I just sell it for $2500 and take a bit of a loss. But damn its a fun car!

[Evan]

If it’s just bearings/oil passage, fix it cheap. If the block/crank/journals are trashed, weigh cost of a proper rebuild vs. a junkyard swap or upgrade LS? JDM import? Stroker kit?. No smog = freedom, so pick your poison based on budget and how wild you want to go. Don’t half-ass a rebuild if the damage is severe go big or swap it.

[Dave W.]

If bearing material is spreading through the oil system there's a chance all bearing journals are damaged including crank main, rod and cam journals. I'd pull the oil pan, remove the rod caps and inspect all rod bearings and journals. If they're all bad, you can assume the crank is trash. You should be able to inspect the bottom of each cylinder bore to see if there's any scoring on the walls.

[TooManyWrenches]

Thanks for the comments!

[walfreyydo]

Machine shops can repair scoured journals, so even if that is the case and you intend to do a rebuild, you can always bring it to a trusted shop and have them take a look and give you their input. Whether it can be repaired is dependent on how deep the damage is and would require removing some material and polishing.

Depending on how much material needs to be removed, it would more than likely require running oversize bearings, which I am unsure if those are available or not for the 944, so you would want to source those before moving forward.

[dr bob]

In my limited experience, whenever I find metal debris in the sump, there's metal debris throughout the oiling system. That includes the heads for the cams, and there tend to be some plugs, check valves and restrictors that must be (read: should have been by the last guy...) removed for cleaning and put back in for driving.

The hard part: Make a decision now on whether you want to fix the car. Pull the engine and leave it with a known-good rebuilder, and pick it up on the way from the airport for your next home leave. Or send it to a new home now, save the anguish and the storage costs, and shop for another when you finish your tour.

[whalenlg]

Depending on how much material needs to be removed, it would more than likely require running oversize bearings, which I am unsure if those are available or not for the 944, so you would want to source those before moving forward.

They were available when I needed them in Winter 2025 - beware that main bearings had a 2 month lead time from Porsche dealer sources.

[dr bob]

Any good results with using Glyco or other third-part bearing sets?

[whalenlg]

Any good results with using Glyco or other third-part bearing sets?

I couldn’t find any Glyco main bearings anywhere.
I went with acl rod bearings and oem main bearings from ebs racing which somehow got the main bearings faster than Porsche sources.

So far so good with both (500 miles only).