changing Rod Bearings on 93 ATX

[shoguy3.2]

ok guys, i live in ontario so im dealing with a canaidan car. My car has 150 thousand kms on it probley around 160 in march , but newayz that adds up to what ?? 80 thousnad miles ??

i thought i would do the needed maintence over my week of in march to make sure the motor is up to specs , the body is mint and the tranny is new so i figure what they **** ya know.

I plan on changing the bearings in my car..right now the motor isnt noisy, no oil light or anything but im doing it to be on the safe side.

my dad told me something about undersized or oversized bearings, and which ones i plan on using ..i have no idea...soo which ones to you guys recommend ?? also which brand is best..i plan on buyin mine from napa or cross canada automotive. my dad thinks this job is impossible to do in a garage with basic handtools....he is convinced we have to drop the crank.

so guys undersized or oversized bearings ???

also my car has had the tranny removed twice in the past month soo will the y-pipe removal part be easy for me ?? i herd thats the hardest part of it all ...any help at all would be amazing guys ..

thanx in advace.

 

[NotSoSlowSHO]

If the y-pipe has been removed recently, it should come off without a fuss.
You will need standard sized bearings. Clevite.
Crank does not need to be removed. Main bearings can be more difficult, but rod bearings are a cake walk.
No fancy tools required here. Just be sure you have a good torque wrench for reassembly.

 

[LJRuddy]

Question... Why is it that in the many posts i have read about rod bearing replacement, this is the first post for a 3.2??? It seems like that 3.0 engines eat the bearing faster than the 3.2s do. Why?

 

[shoguy3.2]

Question... Why is it that in the many posts i have read about rod bearing replacement, this is the first post for a 3.2??? It seems like that 3.0 engines eat the bearing faster than the 3.2s do. Why?

ya know now that i think of it ...all posts i read are 3.0L ....is a 3.2 in any way the same for the beairng replacmenet ?? like if i didnt need it...if say bearings were always better in the 3.2....thats woudl take a load of my mind....can anyone else explain ?

 

[NoSlo]

Bearing Replacement on 3.2

There aren't too many differences. The only problem I had was the exhaust gasket donut part number given on the kurtmetros.com site was not what my car had - there is a flat gasket between the Y pipe and resonator/flex pipe on my car. I had to take the old gasket to the napa store to match up, and it seems like the 96-99 ATX taurus gasket is the same. Also the oil level sensor is on the front of the engine.

My rod bearings looked OK at 150K on my ATX, all were very evenly worn with m&m sized patches of copper showing on the top and just a hint of the first layer of overlay (of four different layers I could see with copper being the fourth) being rubbed off the bottom. The Helms manual even says "The copper lead bearing base may be visible through the bearing overlay. If the base showing is less than 20 percent of the total area, the bearings are not excessively worn. It is not necessary to replace the bearing if the bearing clearance is within recommended limits."

An ATX probably can have lower wear because of the elimination of driver error: no full-throttle lugging the engine in low RPMs, no downshifting/compression braking, no over-revving the engine when not necessary to obtain desired power. If you are cognizant of the how you drive your MTX car, having engine health in mind and keeping the RPMs and power in an ideal range, the engine should last longer.

 

[shoguy3.2]

There aren't too many differences. The only problem I had was the exhaust gasket donut part number given on the kurtmetros.com site was not what my car had - there is a flat gasket between the Y pipe and resonator/flex pipe on my car. I had to take the old gasket to the napa store to match up, and it seems like the 96-99 ATX taurus gasket is the same. Also the oil level sensor is on the front of the engine.

My rod bearings looked OK at 150K on my ATX, all were very evenly worn with m&m sized patches of copper showing on the top and just a hint of the first layer of overlay (of four different layers I could see with copper being the fourth) being rubbed off the bottom. The Helms manual even says "The copper lead bearing base may be visible through the bearing overlay. If the base showing is less than 20 percent of the total area, the bearings are not excessively worn. It is not necessary to replace the bearing if the bearing clearance is within recommended limits."

An ATX probably can have lower wear because of the elimination of driver error: no full-throttle lugging the engine in low RPMs, no downshifting/compression braking, no over-revving the engine when not necessary to obtain desired power. If you are cognizant of the how you drive your MTX car, having engine health in mind and keeping the RPMs and power in an ideal range, the engine should last longer.

was your car ever driven hard ?? like iknow the first years of my cars life..it was a company car for a ford big shot employee....then it was sold to a middle aged guy in his 30's who then traded it in on a impala and a 22 year old got it ....drove it all through college (2 years) the stored it awya for 3 years due to his dad giving him a truck for work ....and not needing the SHO

and i dont drive mine hard...occasionally floor it but nothing stupid..

soo if the oil changes were kept up..i should be ok then not to change the bearings.....i just have to change the timing belt'

my car is a 93 ATX with 150 000 kms on it (canadian car) which is what 80-90 thousand miles ??

so it shoudl be ok ?

 

[BlackandBlue]

I just changed my rod bearings in my 93 ATX with 90,000 on the motor. They were not bad, but they were not great and they needed to be changed. I am guessing about 10-15K and I would have spun one. Trust me, you want to change them.
Eric

 

[SHOtimer]

The 3.0's and the 3.2's eat the bearings the same, and their is a fair amount of posts dealing with 3.2 bearings. I changed mine in my ATX with 149k on them and they needed it, they weren't horrible, but it was nice knowing that new ones were in there.

Doug

 

[pudge235]

I just did the rod bearing on my 91. The car had 178K miles on it and the bearing had ware but not terrible. Im not sure how much longer they would have lasted but they looked pretty good. Im posotive they were never changed becuase I bought the car off the the ONLY owner and he gave me the whole entire list of records kept on the car. I love original owners and I love organized doctors even better lol. Any way I replaced them just to be safe and the car is running fine. its a fairly simple job and it could never hurt to replace them.

 

[Alex Perry]

I did mine at 183,000 miles. Went really easy, the only thing I suggest is go to an exhaust shop before hand and throw them a few bucks to heat up the y-pipe bolts, back them off and put them on again. All I had at the time was propane, so their oxy-acetylene torch made quick work of it. I don't think I was near spinning one, but the engine definitely sounds tighter now.

Here's a picture of the bearings. You can click it for a high-res image.

 

[shoguy3.2]

yea boys, im thinkni i should change them soon, just to be safe, if its a easy job, something i can do in a day ( ill probley do them over march break) i think my car will last that long no problems...runs good but i think the timing belt has to be done before anything

lucky me, my tranny was removed twice in the past month for repairs, soo the y-pipe was dropped each time....hense it will probley be easy for me to take it off !! any other tips on the rod bearings guys??? how long you estimate it would take me ??