Spun rod bearing, again?

[SwitchSkier]

I spun a rod bearing on my GS about a week ago. I didnt want to do it myself because i didnt have the time, so i took it to the dealer. He said pretty much i needed a new engine, which i really didnt believe, because it was the early stages, and not too bad. So instead they just looked inside, found a scratch on the crank and the block, and polished them as best as they could. Then put in a new bearing. Now i drove it home, and when i got home, im hearing rod knock again. so, what do i do? Should i have a machine shop bore out my block like 0.20 over? Can my crank be fixed? Im not too familiar with my car yet, so i may not know what im talking about... help please

 

[VelocitàPaola]

Um... there really isn't a need to bore out the cylinders... but if I were you, I would remove the crank, get it ground down .010" or .020" (however much it needs to be ground down), then order a set of new, oversized bearings from Howell Automotive, Exile Racing, or Concept Illusions. I would also replace whichever rod was knocking. Parts Dinosaur should be able to set you up with a new rod relatively inexpensively.

You'll need a machine shop to grind down the crank (obviously). You'll also need to take them your knocking piston/rod for them to press out the wrist pin and install the new rod.

While you're at it, make sure you have anaerobic sealer, and a lower gasket kit with a new head gasket. Many of the seals/gaskets cannot be re-used. Also, the main bolts and rod bolts are TTY (one time use), so order some more of those.

Properly fixing a spun bearing is a lot of work because of the split block design of our engines, but there is really only one way to do it. If you caught the spun bearing very early on, you might have been able to just get away with just polishing the crank. In most cases, though, the crank needs to be ground down.

Depending on how long the machine shop takes, and how long it takes for you to get those parts in, you're looking at about a week of downtime.

 

[SwitchSkier]

ok thanks. but i am looking to sell my car as soon as possible. so do you think that is the best way to do it? i want to get it running as cheap as possible, so it does not have to be a long term fix.

 

[VelocitàPaola]

ok thanks. but i am looking to sell my car as soon as possible. so do you think that is the best way to do it? i want to get it running as cheap as possible, so it does not have to be a long term fix.

Like I said, there is really only one way to fix a spun bearing... You can try to just replace the bearings with standard sized replacements again, but there's no telling how long that'll last. It could start knockin again in a few hours, or a few weeks...

 

[T is for TURBO]

ok thanks. but i am looking to sell my car as soon as possible. so do you think that is the best way to do it? i want to get it running as cheap as possible, so it does not have to be a long term fix.

I hope you intend on telling the person you sell your car to about this situation...

 

[BigRand]

ok thanks. but i am looking to sell my car as soon as possible. so do you think that is the best way to do it? i want to get it running as cheap as possible, so it does not have to be a long term fix.

Hey I live in the area, I've got a couple of Machine shops that are really fair on pricing, and I would go, NOT CALL, some local junk yards and pick a part places, and see if they have a 420a shortblock. That way it might run you a couple hundred dollars, and well you could put it back together yourself or take it back to the dealer, but I bet the labor would be a lot cheaper then fixing your current problem.

 

[SwitchSkier]

I hope you intend on telling the person you sell your car to about this situation...

o ya, of course. i would never screw someone over like that. looks like im gonna be fixing the problem competely myself though

 

[92awddsm]

o ya, of course. i would never screw someone over like that. looks like im gonna be fixing the problem competely myself though

Well, if you took it to the dealer, paid them to fix it, and they attempted to fix it without being successful, take it back. They should at least reimburse you some $ for their failed repair job. If you get lucky, they might even replace the engine at their cost. With problems like that, they should have just refused the repair and just suggested a new engine.

If they wont do anything for you, you would probably come out cheaper by finding a replacement short block instead of rebuilding the current engine.