1999 Chevrolet 5.7 (350) vortec problems?

[lil400exman]

Alright. Well I recently bought a mint 1999 chevrolet K1500 (old bodystyle) 4x4 ext cab and it has been great so far. Well this past weekend while in Tennessee the truck died. When I say died it knocked something horrible and could hardy run. Took it to the shop as I knew it was somethin very internal (took valve covers+heads off and nothing) and the mech said the crankshaft wore out and the rods ate out the journals.

What do you all think? Is this common on the vortec 350?:confused:

thank you for all your help guys.

[red2004 TRX450R]

no its not common.
sounds like it was real low on oil or was not changed!! if the crank - rods went!!

the vortec 350 short block. is the same design as all small block chevys going back to the beginning!! There are millions of them and yes some do fale but most dont!!!

[lil400exman]

I always keep the engine full with rotella T and change it religously. The oil pressure stayed good (actually a little high) around 50 PSI the whole time.:(

[TCracin440ex]

im very familiar with the 350 c/k1500 motor......was it knocking before it died and had huge loss in hp

98 z did this to me....and it costed me 1000 dollars for a new motor....what it sounds like 2 me is either its done spun a bearing, or wrist pin...its the identical to what happened to my truck

lost all power, knocking extremely bad and loud, and would barely run

i still have my stock 350 sitting in my back yard im going to tear it down and rebuilt it to find out whats wrong with it and what failed...im putting money on a spun bearing tho

[bigvforcer]

It for sure spun a bearing. For your sake I hope it is not the rod bearings. Generally if that happens you are f$cked. Rod bearings have a tendency to destroy cranks. best case senario the crank can be ground down and you can get away with different bearings. Worst case long block or rebuild the motor, but I say if that happens to buy the rebuild, less headache and probably comes with a warranty!