Originally Posted by LS1Fever
The problem with the 6 bolt swap is the fact that is it becoming harder and harder to find everything you need to make the swap complete. It is not going to be around forever. I have never had a 7 bolt fail on me, and the reason for that is because I take care of all my cars. I think maintanence is the biggest reason for the 7 bolt failures. Just MHO.
I totally agree. Looks like mine is beginning to walk, but I've gotten pretty decent mileage off this motor. All depends on driving habits and maintenance as you suggested. In my opinion, I think oil plays a bit of a factor as well.
Since all the crank theories involve the journal bearing eating into the crank, I think lubrication is obviously very important. Using a more superior oil (Mobil 1, Royal Purple, or any other high quality full synthetic), will help reduce/prevent crank walk. It definently won't prevent it in all cases, but it surely can't hurt. Look at all the research done with oils. I remember the tests Mobil 1 did with their synthetic oils, where an engine was able to run for a good period of time with the engine being deprived of fresh oil circulation, and basically just ran on the remnants.
I have used Mobil 1 since I purchased my car with 52,000 miles on it, back in 2001. The car currently has around 93,000 miles on it. Only time will tell I suppose, but once the time comes, I'm going to do a 6 bolt swap or the 2.4L route, along with a whole list of goodies.