Rod Bearings

[TankII]

The engine I put into my '91 had Standard bearings installed by the previous owner, but I miced it as Undersized. My oil pressure was terrible until I found this out.

Drop your pan first!

TankII

 

[RAYJAY]

Speaking of that does anyone know if the clevite main bearings are still on back-order?

got a set this spring from my local napa store


Jeff

 

[rlw001]

What do you guys think about using a beam style torque wrench on the rod bearings?

 

[jedhead]

What do you guys think about using a beam style torque wrench on the rod bearings?

Why when you can buy a clicker for less than $10 at Harbor Frieght.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=239

Bob

 

[NotSoSlowSHO]

I dont think I would place much faith in such a cheap torque wrench

I like my 12-250 ft.lb. Craftsman Picked it up for $50 at a **** shop. Tested is against a friends for acuracy.... Good to go!

 

[rlw001]

I already have a cheap clicker for lugnuts and a fairly new Craftsman beam style that I use for external engine work. According to Craftsman, both their beam and clicker style are 4% +/- accuracy.

 

[jedhead]

So far the cheap torque wrench which has the same accuracy rating as Sears (+/- 4%) has worked ok on the rod bearings I changed 45K ago on my engine that has been reved over 7000 many many times and once past 8000 in second gear. I would prefer a craftsman, but $10 torque wrench is hard to pass up.

Bob

 

[DHMag]

my dads Chicago (Harbor Freight) click wrench is within +/- 1%. our Craftsman is out 6%

 

[revhardSHO]

Another thing about cheap torque wrenches is the fact that they can be hard to read, they will also go out of calibration quicker than a high quality unit. I was going to use my cheapo clicker on the RB's but I ended up borrowing a good snap on for peace of mind.

 

[shojuan]

Why when you can buy a clicker for less than $10 at Harbor Frieght.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=239

Bob

Good, they're on sale again. I've been waiting for that, now I'll go pick one up to keep in the trunk for lugnuts. No way I was going to pay $20 for one of those. Won't be carrying my 25-250 in the trunk after I get one.

Picked up a sturtevant-richmont 15-75 footy-pound on ebay for ~$20 shipped. Sears sells these pups for $168. It was barely used but doesn't look it. Looks new as does the case. Tested it against my digital torque meter to see if I needed to calibrate it (would do myself with SR's published instructions, and my digital torque meter). For all practical purposed it is right on. Tested my old (15 years or so) craftsman 25-250 in-lb microtorque on it. The calibration's still good on that one. Tested my newer 25-250 ft-lb craftsman digitork (which has been dropped a few times) on the meter too and it's calibrations is still good. Wanted a smaller torque wrench because the digitork has a flaw where the rubber handle can slip down a bit (such as after dropping it or even picking it up wrong. Hasn't happened if I just look at it wrong though) meaning it reads a lower line than it should: torque values will be much higher than they read if the handle has slipped down. Busted a brake bolt because of this. Torquing at night in low light and drinking too much beer didn't help...in this case at least. Often drinking beer keeps me focused on getting the job done, lol. Didn't work that time.

 

[zuup_2000]

Just my .02
ALWAYS gauge clearances, and never trust the new parts to be what the box says. I agree that the standard bearings will more than likely measure to spec, but you can run into some that measure a little tighter or looser than others. Then you can switch some around to get the best fit. If you have one that the clearance is too high, you can actually go and purchase on more journal set and find that it will fit better. I know alot of guys that dont bother to check ALL clearances with bearings or piston rings. They just check a few and figure they will all be good.
Ive had one instance when rebuilding a 351W and installing factory sized rings. Every single ring measured perfectly untill the very last ring on the very last piston. It had .001 clearance and if I would skipped checking them all, it would have been disasterous. I had to file fit that one ring.
A bearing set will not be exact on every bearing. Some will be tighter than others, and some looser. They can also be the wrong bearing in the wrong box, and Ive even seen bearings stamped wrong.
I also dont like re-tightening fasteners over and over, but its worth it to atleast gauge them once. I just cant see skipping that part if your already putting in the time and effort to change the bearings. just my opinion, but I figured Id throw it out there.