Rod Bearing Questions

[rjjr]

Ive been reading up on the rod bearings for the sho engine, and it is my understanding that once they go, youve got serious problems. How long will they last on a MTX car like mine, and how long of a job is it to perform? I know that the bearings themselves are pretty cheap. Should this be a preventative maintainence thing i should be thinking about with 109k on the clock?

 

[yamahaSHO]

Depending on how well your car was taken care of.. they normally last around 120k before replacement for preventative maintenance. Some don't replace them at all. I just replaced mine at 70k and I show only about 1/2 wear and no copper.

 

[Yamaha V6]

Well, this is a loaded question.

My 95 ATX was babied it's first 74k by the original owner, Mobil 1 receipts, all maintenance, etc.. I got the car at 74k, did the 60k service on it, kept with the M1 (because it had it from day one), and I throw money at my cars even when they don't need it. I spun mine at 104k.

My 95 MTX spun its at 72k, right after the blower was put on.

It's been pretty well documented that some cars can go hundreds of thousands of miles on the original bearings, while others barely get to 100k (if that). I think if anything, driving style CHANGES probably factors more than anything at this point. I also would love to be able to follow up with some Ford research on production to see if bearing clearance tolerances off the assembly line had anything in common wit those that spin early.

It's about $50 for the bearings, $50 for the gasket sets etc., and your time to do the job.

Welcome to the forum, BTW, and best of luck with your SHO!

 

[rjjr]

thanks for the information guys. I bought the car with 106k on the clock and to my understanding it was mostly highway miles. I guess a little preventative maintainence now will save me alot of trouble down the road. Hopefully it will last until summer when im out of school with some time off.

 

[AutoSHO]

They should be OK to 120k. I'm planning to change mine this summer since cold starts sound a little noisier than I like. Runs great oil pressure even so.

 

[BlownByU]

Mine went at 122K (2K after I bought the car). It is not all that difficult to do so I'd recommend it. At least it pushed me into a 3.2 swap :burn_out:

 

[Mike Kopstain]

It's just such an easy job to do. There is really no excuse why any SHO under 120k should not have had it's bearings replaced. I would much rather do a rod bearing job over a front 60k.

 

[Ferendon]

What all is inclusive of a rod bearing job, and where the **** are they? Sorry I'm not real good with names of parts. ALOT of things I know, but with something like that, I'd probably go to O'Reilly's and tell them to "give me that".

 

[luigisho]

You can get the Clevite replacements at NAPA and whatever other stores carry that brand. The rod bearings can be reached by dropping the y-pipe, removing the starter and removing the oil pan (windage tray etc..). The rod bearings and the bottom of the crankshaft will be exposed. Poke around at http://www.kurtmetros.com He has a writeup with a few pics on there somewhere.

Here http://www.kurtmetros.com/bearings.html