Look what I found in my engine

[shocker998md]

Here's number 6, once I pulled it my rotating asembly turns over smooth as butter. Can't feel the rust but I'm going to hit it with the bottle brush and gap new rings for all my cylinders. It doesn't make sense to do 3 and not the other 3.

 

[shocker998md]

Here's number 6 piston, little bit of crap on it, oil ring looks rusty and I'm betting that's why there's the mark on the bore.

 

[shocker998md]

Since I decided to tear it down to ring all the pistons I've got some findings. I don't know how this happened. This is the only thing that caught my eye. The top of the number 3 rod bearing got scratched and I've looked at the crank and that journal looks and by dragging a finger nail on it feels fine. The worst crank journal is for the number 1 main bearing , I can feel a small scratch with a finger nail.

Here's pics of the bad bearing, the journal associated with it and then all of the main bearings



The blue is from the flash. There isn't any discoloring on the crank.

 

[shocker998md]

 

[shocker998md]

So now here's my dilema. Do I
1. Leave the bearings as is and re assemble with new pistons rings and call it a day.

2. Roll in the same sized bearings with the crank as is.

3. Hope that a local machine shop won't screw up polishing a crank, then order new bearings and borrow the bore guage again and measure out my clearances and report back?

Remeber this was a 100% running driving engine 5 years ago. No issues before I pulled it.

 

[shocker998md]

Here's today's updates. I've bottle brushed the rest of the cylinders. Then I cleaned it out with hot soapy water, lifter valleys, cylinders, where the crank lays, cam bearings, and then head gasket areas. Then blew it all out with air. Then soaked everything in wd40 and wiped everything down again. Then hit everything with a can of brake clean and did a final wipe down with a white rag and ATF.

I'm currently cleaning the rest of the pistons and rolling around the ideas of new bearings and what to do down there. Here's some pics.

1,3,5


2,4,6


Halfway done with cleani ng and sizing rings

 

[shocker998md]

Brake cleaned the journals, wiped them off with a lint free and then put a coat of oil on them for the time being

 

[TexasT]

Id hit the mains and rods with some plastigauge just to check em. The bearings do show wear but I don't see any "junk" in em. I would be inclined to check em, clean em and assemble em.

On a side note when I was a youngster about 8 or so I watched my grandfather and a couple uncles instick an Allis Chalmers tractor engine by pulling the head and using a 4x4 and a sledge hammer to pound the pistons free. They took turns swinging that sledge. Once it was unstuck they bolted the head back on, fired it up and put it to work. Making it work and building race engines is worlds appart.

Side note two, we have a 2x4 especially drilled for lifters and push rods. Use it on every disassembly.

Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk

 

[shocker998md]

I should be able to borrow some gauges from work this week so I can re asembly the bottom end and get my oil clearences with the old bearings.

I'm just torn on what route to go, I'd hate to develop some issues 5000 miles from now that I could have addressed with a polish and new bearings but at the same time if a shop screws it up or I screw it up then I would have created new issues.

 

[shocker998md]

So I was bored tonight. I wasn't able to borrow a micrometer so I gapped the rest of my rings. I'm at .018 on the top ring and .020 on the 2nd. The oil rings are at .020 out of the box so there fine.

I popped the main bearings back in, light coat if 30 weight that was on the shelf and installed the caps. I torqued them in 20 ft lb intervals after knocking the crank backwards and then foward to set the thrust bearing. The crank spins fine and got the caps torqued to 100 ft lbs.

Then I set up my dial indicator to check crank end plan. I pre the bob weight backwards, zeroed the dial and them pryed fowards. I'm looking at a touch over .10 and here's some pics

 

[shocker998md]

I'm going to try and measure the crank tomorrow on lunch and report back with numbers.

I'm really tempted to use these bearings since I had good oil pressure and stop sinking money into and save it for a real build down the road.

 

[Chuck Leeper]

Looks to me as tho the brgs have had a lot of dirt run thru them.
The 1 w/ the big groove had a rock thru it!
IMO, all the brgs are junk..

 

[shocker998md]

I keep going back and forth on it.

I think I'm mostly concerned with taking it to a shop and them screwing up a polish. I there's only one good machine shop within an hour of me but I don't know of any buick work they have done.

I guess when I know my numbers tomorrow that will tell me if I can just get a polish.

Should I order the same size bearings I have now to get my clearances from and then if stuffs out of spec get undersized ones?

While I'm at it should I just r&r the front cam bearing since I'd be ordering parts?

 

[Chuck Leeper]

I there's only one good machine shop within an hour of me but I don't know of any buick work they have done.

Polishing a crank has nothing to do w/ it being a Buick part. If the shop is good, they would have no problem w/ that job.

 

[shocker998md]

So looking around on rock auto for main bearings and rod bearings im not sure which ones to use there are
SEALED POWER 4263M in standard and .010 under
SEALED POWER 7144MA standard and .010 under
CLEVITE / PERFECT CIRCLE MS960P TM-77 standard and .010 under
CLEVITE / PERFECT CIRCLE MS1688P TriMetal Contains .020" Oversize Length Flanged Bearing Contains .020" Oversize Length Flanged Bearing; Material: TM-77 (Size: 0.010" Undersize)

Then theres about 5 or 6 different options for rod bearings. Im assuming take the crank in, polish it and then take my measurements of the journals. Then install a set of standard bearings and torq the caps and measure those. Take the difference and that's my oil clearance. So I should order standard and .010 undersize?

Im about to click around on full throttle here in just a minute.

 

[shocker998md]

I see full throttle has standard and .001 undersized bearings. I know for a fact ive got 1 or 2 .001 undersized gm bearings in it right now. I guess step one is measure the crank and polish it.

 

[shocker998md]

Im about to head over to a machine shop here in the next hour to get the crank measured and hopefully just polished. Ill report back this evening.

 

[34blazer]

There's some fretting on those bearings, likely caused from dirt. If there was a couple of specs of dirt embedded in the bearing then I would run it. But not with any fretting, IMO.

 

[TURBOELKY]

You should have just taken in the block and had the main bore measured, Rod big end measured, crank polished and measured. Add in thickness of bearing and that's what you have for clearance and go from there. Machine shop would have been able to fit a proper bearing without the guess work, ordering multiple bearings and hours of plasti gage. Usually projects like this spiral out of control and end with a complete forged rotating assy, a girdle or caps and a HUGE credit card bill.

 

[shocker998md]

Well since I'm not a fan of credit cards you have nothing to worry about. I just need to get the car driving by spring for when I get sent recruiting. I need to be able to move the car where I plan on storing it.

I like to learn myself so I'll be doing it all. I had the crank polished and was walked through how to measure the crank at the machine shop. I ordered standards and 001 understand from full throttle and will measure stuff out when it gets here. Stay tuned for updates and questions next week.