[greensmurf20]

hello all, have a 71 1.9 liter motor i'm putting in my 70GT. i pulled the pan to inspect everything before i put it in so i dont have another misfortune with a engine like what happened yesterday. when i pulled the pan you can grab the rods and shake them up and down on the crank. the main and rod bearings all have good babbit on them and they show no signs of wear but it seems like way too much play to me. can somebody tell me if its probably right or if something is not right?

 

[Jerry C]

Nope, thats not a good thing. You need between .001 to .003 in. rod to crank clearance. If you can feel it. it is too much

 

[Paul]

Plastic gage

While you've got the pan off, you can check your bearing clearance with plastic gage material. Most of the part stores sell it for $2 to $3. Its simple and pretty accuate. Remove a bearing cap and Cutoff a 1/2" long piece. Place it on the journal and reinstall the bearing cap torqueing to proper spec. Then remove the cap and compare the platic gage on the bearing to the chart on the packge. The more bearing clearance you have, the LESS the plastic get squished.

Its a good idea to check all bearing clearances this way even when assembling a engine that is getting all NEW bearings.

HTH
Paul

 

[greensmurf20]

ya the local autozone sells some plasti guage stuff. i've seen it used when my uncle put his race car together at our garage. i found a place that has all my bearings, rings, and gasket set, the gasket set was 80 bucks so compare that to OGTS. saving 45 bucks right there. everything together is 240 bucks so that dont seem bad compared to everywhere else maybe you guys might wanna try it out. norhter auto parts, at www.northernautoparts.com or call at 1-800-831-0884

 

[greensmurf20]

i've tore 3 spare motors i had down last night and i'll take the motor out of my GT today and tear that one down because 1, i want to know what happened to it on wednesday 2, it should have 9:1 compression pistons. one of the motors i had was all rebuilt but somebody was playing a little too rough and snapped a rod one #4 cylinder. i'm taking that head and timing chain componets since its all new and putting them in another 72 block that has a great crank,rod, pistons, and i'll use thoses 9:1's if they arent hurt. going to do new main/rod bearings and new rings oh i jut have to tell you guys that the motor that used to be in my GT before i pulled it this March had busted rings in 3 cylinders and still ran!!!! just thought that was amazing enough. thanks for everybodys help i'm glad i have a place to find people like you guys.!!!!