Rebuilding.

[isaiddurazoo]

Hey guys I had spun a rod bearing a couple weeks back. The first journal where I had spun the bearing was fine. No chips etc. SO ultimately I bought new rod bearings. I bought topline bearings from extremePSI for 20 bucks. My car isn't performance so I figure they'll work fine.

I'm working from under the car. I finally got all the bearings in, I used plenty of lucas prelube stuff on them. I torqued them down to 14ft/lbs and gave it an extra 90 degree turn.

I went to spin the crank just to make sure I didn't over tighten it. That crank is stuck!!
This is my first time even seeing the inside of an engine so I'm fairly new to this.

Is this normal? If not how do I go about it?

 

[Xo4TSi]

What's the clearance at on those new bearings? Check with some plastigauge at least. And are you sure everything is clean? It's very easy for the bearing material to get into the rest of the motor especially the galleys and pump. Any pictures of the old bearings and crank?

 

[Alan11]

Torque one rod then spin the crank, then torque the second rod then spin the crank and so on with the rest. Good luck.

 

[JusMX141]

You either got the wrong-spec bearings, mixed up all of the rod caps, or you installed one (or more) of the caps backwards.

I hope you didn't mix the caps up- if so, you're screwed.

 

[Alan11]

I did the same thing to a 4.6 mustang and torqued them all at the same time and the crank wouldn spin, not even with the starter. :/ so all I did was torqued them again and spin the crank after each rod was torqued down. Also hope you didn't Mixed the rod caps.

 

[isaiddurazoo]

You either got the wrong-spec bearings, mixed up all of the rod caps, or you installed one (or more) of the caps backwards.

I hope you didn't mix the caps up- if so, you're screwed.

I did lose the order of the rod caps.. I did see that they were marked with a j and the j faced towards the back of the engine. SO I know they're facing the right way but they're not in order. Is this really gonna be that crucial?

 

[Alan11]

Yes each rod cap was made for its specific rod. Rod caps are not interchangable.

 

[JusMX141]

Yup, each cap is machined to each specific rod. If you mix them up, the tolerance becomes different and it will either be too loose to too tight based on the alteration to the circle.

Next step is to pull the head so you can push the rods up through and get them "re-circled", so-to-speak. The machine shop will then have to provide your rod bearings based on the amount of material they'll need to remove in order to get the circle back into spec.

 

[isaiddurazoo]

Yup, each cap is machined to each specific rod. If you mix them up, the tolerance becomes different and it will either be too loose to too tight based on the alteration to the circle.

Next step is to pull the head so you can push the rods up through and get them "re-circled", so-to-speak. The machine shop will then have to provide your rod bearings based on the amount of material they'll need to remove in order to get the circle back into spec.

What I did notice is that each rod cap is discolored a little differently on the ends. I'm gonna try to figure it out that way. Or just put them in one by one torque them to spec and see how well the crank turns. This is my daily driver so I really need to get this done as soon as possible. Plus like many of us money is a factor.

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it.

 

[JusMX141]

You'll need a new set of bearings each time you try. Once you torque them down and distort the bearing by using the wrong cap on the wrong rod, the bearings are trash.

Have fun with it...4 rod caps to the 4th power (number of rods) = 256 possible combinations.

 

[isaiddurazoo]

You'll need a new set of bearings each time you try. Once you torque them down and distort the bearing by using the wrong cap on the wrong rod, the bearings are trash.

Have fun with it...4 rod caps to the 4th power (number of rods) = 256 possible combinations.

Like I said, I'll try to figure this out from the discoloration of the rod caps bud. If not I'll find a different method. its not the end of the world.

 

[BogusSVO]

**Tech tip** When trying to match caps to rods, look at the bevel/champher on either side of the rod and cap.

Also remember that the tabs grooves on the cap and rod are on the same side.

 

[GIRman67]

You'll need a new set of bearings each time you try. Once you torque them down and distort the bearing by using the wrong cap on the wrong rod, the bearings are trash.

Have fun with it...4 rod caps to the 4th power (number of rods) = 256 possible combinations.

If I remember correctly UT would actually be 4 x 4 not 4^4 because you can only put 4 different caps on each rod so it's only 16 combinations