Possible spun cam bearing?

[01_Cummins]

To start it off, Ive been looking to get my hands on a duramax. I found an 01 for sale not too far away from me and he's got a hell of a good price. The bad thing is, is he said it started knocking and there's a small amount of brass shavings in the oil. He pulled the motor and took it to a shop to have it looked at. He said the bottom end is fine, rod and main bearings look good. He's trying to tell me is a wrist pin that's causing the knock but to my knowledge those don't contain any brass. I'm leaning more towards a cam bearing, seeing as lb7s are known for them and it has 220k on the clock. I'm going to go take a look at it on Wednesday, will check the turbo to see if its siezed up from a lack of oil. He said he drove it for about 10 miles after it started knocking and parked it. It still had plenty of power and the knock was significantly louder at an idle than under a load. The heads have not been pulled so I have no clue what kind of shape the pistons are in. Truck is completely stock.

What do you guys think I should do? Go for it? Or will I get bit in the a**?
I appreciate the advice,
Eric

 

[adeso]

sometimes if the turbo goes it will take out the rear cam bearings (oil drain feeds it). Was the brass something that showed up on a oil sample or did they find actual brass chunks in there?

 

[01_Cummins]

Forgot to add, its a 4dr short bed. Fully loaded, power/heated leather, and new transfer case (with pump rub fix).... gonna try to pick it up for $4k as it sits. He's not asking too much more than that.

 

[adeso]

only thing that I can think of that has brass that I can think of is cam, main, and wrist bearings

Some in the turbo and maybe oil pump?

 

[01_Cummins]

He said he parked it immediately and had the motor pulled. He said there was brass in the pan so I don't think a sample was sent out. He claims main and rod bearings are fine. I'll take a better look at it on Wednesday, he said it sounded like it was coming from the drivers side. Is there any way to check the wrist bearings without really tearing too far into it (like when I go check it out in front of the guy)? I'm not gonna be able to dig too deep without a garage full of tools. I kinda want to know what I'm getting myself into before and if I decide to buy it.

 

[01_Cummins]

He claims truck had good oil pressure and turbo spins freely. So I'm starting to think its a wrist pin bearing. Im probably going to end up buying the truck so is there anything I should do to the engine while it's out? Its probably gonna get a set of head studs in it to be safe, but other than that I'm not sure what I should do to it. (Sorry, I've always been a cummins guy haha)

 

[adeso]

The rods are the weak point, how far do you want to push this build? stockish power? trans can only do about 125-150HP over stock before it needs to be built. Stock engine can do about 525 with the stock turbo, about 600 with stock fuel system, about 600-650ish HP if you tune it smart before you bend the rods, heads seem to hold to about the same power level. if you go with LBZ rods you can go up to 700ish HP. The LB7 pistons cut are good for about 850-900HP

 

[01_Cummins]

If I can pick it up for 4, that'll leave me with a little over 5k to play with. I plan on getting a tranny kit and building it myself. So that leaves me with around 2k.... plus this thing will probably get a good chunk of my paycheck and tax return haha looking to build for speed.... can't beat the get up and go of a duramax... especially coming from driving a stick shift cummins.