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Are these rods reusable?

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Mifff

10+ Year Contributor
30
1
Aug 16, 2012
Colorado Spr, Colorado
My knowledge of an engine has come a long way since joining this forum but reusing rods that I have laying about make me slightly uneasy without getting some opinions from this forum.

The backstory on these rods is I received them with the car and the caps were there but not matched with the rod (hooray). I have been told that they can be re-matched by looking at the honing marks then tightening the rod bots and seeing if the mating surfaces are flush. Trust me I will be making matching marks on the rods and caps when this is finished but i'd like to know if it is even worth reconditioning these rods at all. Three of the rods appear to be fine but one appears to be smooth and i'm not sure if that is okay.

I will be taking these in to a machinist after matching them to make sure they are not out of round and so the new bearings have a nice surface to mate to. How much material will be removed in this process? I am looking at new ACL bearings and I do not know if the standard size will be okay or if I'd need to grab something like the .025 oversize or more.

My questions are:
1. Are the rods junk?
2. If the rods are salvageable how how much larger will the holes be after they are made round?
3. Am i safe buying bearings now or should I wait until the machinist gives me the new specs? (it's Black Friday and there are sales is the only reason i'm asking this, yes I realize i don't save anything if i end up needing to send back and replace the bearings anyway because I bought the wrong size).

Thanks for your help.

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Ok so if the rods need rebuilt, what they will do is cut a small amount (0.001") off the mating faces of the cap and rod, then they will hone the hole round. It will end up at the same size it is now. In fact generally the OD of the rod bearings is always the same size. The .25 bearings is to account for the crank journals being turned down (ground) undersized. If your crank is standard and in good shape you should be safe getting standard bearings. Also, you should avoid having the crank ground unless it is really bad. The crank is nitrided, and that is only about .010" deep, grinding the crank will likely take away this hardened layer. The positive of it being nitrided, is that the surface is very hard and generally does not wear. My car has a crank with 200k on it and it only needed a polish.

No for your rods, you should be able to match them up together, just take your time. If they are used it would be a good idea to have the big end checked for round, as well as the pin bushing. I'm not sure what you mean by one is smooth though? Post good pictures of each rod.

So I'd budget $150 to get the rods reconditioned, and possible another $100 for a new set of bolts. (rod bolts are the most stressed fastener in the engine) They are most likely fine unless the PO over torqued them.

So your going to be $250 into the rods A new set of cheap rods is $350-400, but keep in mind that you should have the big end checked for round on the new ones, and they may need to be resized as well.

finally if those pistons are used, scan the skirts carefully for cracks.
 
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