Shane F. Ingate writes:
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All,
This weekend I am going to embark on a most perilous adventure;
replacing big-end and main bearings in "Rags" to bolster poor
oil pressure at idle (and preserve the crankshaft).
I'm pretty sure I can do this (and new thrust washers and new oil
pump) in situ, without having to remove the crankshaft.
My plan is to use standard size bearings in my 75K mile motor; I'll
be doing a major rebuild in 4 years (or 20K miles or motor-death,
whichever comes first :) anyway, so I dont think there is a need to
worry about oversized bearings, unless someone can convince me
otherwise.....
My real concern is replacing the upper shell of the main bearings;
Many folk in the V8 world believe I may have a problem installing
the new upper shells and getting them to seat correctly; their advice
is to just replace the lower main shell. Does this sound like
OK advice?
Do folk have preferred source of vendors for bearings?
Any other tips and gotchas?
Thanks in advance....I'll write up the adventure (for this neophyte
mekanik :) and let you all know how it goes.
Cheerio, wish me luck!
Shane Ingate in San Diego
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Shane,
Do not replace only the lower shell halves. Once you get to that
point it is plenty easy to remove and replace the upper ones, too.
I know, I did this last winter. What you need to do is loosen the
fan belt (or you wont be able to get #1 out) and remove only one
main shell at a time while loosening the two adjacent ones about
one turn to allow the crank to drop a little. You should be able
to push the old one out with the new one. If you have trouble
there are tricks as outlined in Len Renkenberger's 6-Tech book I
can relay to you.
You will also probably need a lower gasket kit as the block-to-front
cover gasket will likely get damaged when removing the front sealing
block. Anyway some of these parts could be handy and some will be
necessary. And use standard bearings unless the crank has been turned.
While you are in there you should also look into replacing the
thrust washers. I bought a standard set and a set +.005 and wound
up using one of each to get the end float down below .005.
This whole operation is more or less painless (if you count lying
on your back with oil dripping in your face for several hours
painless) and the results are encouraging. And I did it in the
cold weather. (And being in San Diego you are saying "what's
cold weather?") ;-D
Have fun and good luck.
Dave Massey
St. Louis, MO USA
57 TR3
71 TR6
80 TR8
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