Journal bearing failure - damage to crankshaft

[RogerCH]

Ladies & Gents,

I'm new member and need some urgent advice regarding a friends (young lad) 2008 Impreza 1.5 R AWD.

The vehicle has suffered oil starvation and the journal/rod bearing on the  No1 piston, has literally disintegrated causing scratching to the crankshaft. It does not appear to be that severe however, after watching numerous Youtube videos, some have stated that it cannot be polished out, as the tolerances is so small. 

The vehicle is in France and the cost of a new crankshaft from Subaru is a king's ransom. Irrespective Subaru don't have the part and state it could take 4 weeks to arrive. Before Brexit most of the private garages bought their parts from the UK, as they are nearly half the price however, now the customs delay and duty make this option uneconomical, although I might have to acquire from the UK, as I cannot find some parts here. 

In summary, is there anyone that could advise of the following:

1. Can the crankshaft be polished to remove the scratching? There are no deep gouges just surface scratching.

2. A recommendation for after market Subaru parts in the UK and France - he simply needs to get this back on the road for as little cost as possible...!

3. Can one rod be replaced without changing all 4 - no damage to the others?

4. I'm not a mechanic but if it is polished beyond spec, can a 'thicker' journal bearing be installed on that rod alone, to bring it back in tolerance?

It's incredulous to think that such a small piece of inexpensive component can cause so much of headache and possible economic write off...

I'm doing as much as I can on the rebuild but any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks 

[savage bulldogs]

Think most don't like to re grind the turbo cranks , possibly due to the later ones being heat treated or nitrade cranks .

I've personally have only ever built turbo variants and had one crank journal very finely polished .

 

It was fine for 65k miles + but it was still within factory clearance on that journal , so I just mixed n matched a stock sized set of acl bearings to bring the clearances to a more even spec .

As for one oversized big end bearing,  you should be fine in a n/a 1.5r but might have to buy 2 sets of bearings (one oversized set and one stock sized set ) 

Just bear in mind by the time you've had machine work done , run everything through a hot wash (to clear any debris from the oil galleries) bought new bearings and replacement genuine gaskets ...

It might be cheaper to source a 2nd hand replacement engine .

Heres a couple of UK companies that supply genuine subaru parts/gaskets .

As performance .

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