What do I do...crankshaft journal has a tiny knick....
07-22-2006, 10:57 PM
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What do I do...crankshaft knicks....
What do I do...crankshaft journal has a tiny knick....and tiny scratches from my fingernail when trying to remove the crushed plastiguage
07-23-2006, 12:51 PM
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Re: What do I do...crankshaft knicks.... (eightvalver)
Any mark you put on a crankshaft with your fingernail is not going to hurt it.
I've scraped the plastigauge off bearings with my fingernail and it sorta looks like scratches on the bearing. Never had a problem with it.
You say you have a tiny nick on the crankshaft journal. This nick could be a problem if it could be the beginning of a crack. It helps if you see steel and cast iron like a softer material like cloth. You know how some cloth you can't rip until you make a cut with scissors then you can rip it. Metal is the same way. A sharp point is the first place a crack will start. This is why journals have radiuses. The question is if this nick is sharp enough to start a crack. If it is what you can do about it is make it so it isn't sharp. In other words radius the nick.
What you also have to keep in mind here is the way oil makes a hydraulic cushion between moving parts. The strength of this cushion determined by such things as the size of the gap and that roughness that you see on the bearings. What you don't want to do is make an easy escape path for the oil, so you shouldn't do any grinding or filing on either edge of where the bearing goes near the radius of the crank.
All this talk is to give you an overall idea of the factors going on. If you are not sure what to do with the nick you could take the crank to an automotive machine shop. The only thing it should cost you is gas to get an expert opinion.
I've scraped the plastigauge off bearings with my fingernail and it sorta looks like scratches on the bearing. Never had a problem with it.
You say you have a tiny nick on the crankshaft journal. This nick could be a problem if it could be the beginning of a crack. It helps if you see steel and cast iron like a softer material like cloth. You know how some cloth you can't rip until you make a cut with scissors then you can rip it. Metal is the same way. A sharp point is the first place a crack will start. This is why journals have radiuses. The question is if this nick is sharp enough to start a crack. If it is what you can do about it is make it so it isn't sharp. In other words radius the nick.
What you also have to keep in mind here is the way oil makes a hydraulic cushion between moving parts. The strength of this cushion determined by such things as the size of the gap and that roughness that you see on the bearings. What you don't want to do is make an easy escape path for the oil, so you shouldn't do any grinding or filing on either edge of where the bearing goes near the radius of the crank.
All this talk is to give you an overall idea of the factors going on. If you are not sure what to do with the nick you could take the crank to an automotive machine shop. The only thing it should cost you is gas to get an expert opinion.
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