What if ...

something was plugged somewhere.

That poor oil pump would be trying like hell to move oil, and there would be a helluva lotta stress on it.

Wonder if that stress could cause odd noises, like maybe focing the impeller to run out of "true" and cause that uneven wear ?

Maybe there was even enough backpressure to do some strange things to the bypass valve in the oil filter, like cause it to "chatter" or something...

C/YA!
Jeff
'88 Trooper
2DR LWB 4ZE1 5SP
bone stock DD