H22A unknown miles. I notice a line down the middle of the crank journal, can't catch with fingernail. Everything is smooth. Just some slight wear on the bearings? The last one looks pretty discolored.

 

Looks good enough to rebuild to me. Whoever owned it previously changed the oil in it at least.

Just don't blow it up. These are way more expensive and rare now than they were just a few years ago.

 

By rebuild you mean slap it back together? I'm doing a BS delete. Should I remove the BS bearings?

I also have 2 spare heads and a block thats scarred.

 

Oil pump looks nearly new. .004 radial. Axial perfect. Outer .007 fits tightly. I don't have a .008 to test .007 is max of new range. Slightly concerning. Limit is .008 which is barely anything.

 

You can leave the balance shaft bearings alone when installing a balance shaft delete kit. Nothing to be gained by removing them.

By rebuild I mean since you've gone that far you might as well replace the main and rod bearings, re-ring and gap for your intended purposes, etc.

Oil pump is just inside normal margins. You may want to consider replacing since you're going to use the engine hard.

 

To quote from you if I may: "I would stay away from ACL race bearings on a stock engine in a daily driver. They have a little more clearance but the surface is much harder which makes debris more likely to damage the crank over something like a traditional bearing. I've used regular King bearings in 10+ H/F engine builds and never once had a bearing issue with them. All different sorts of builds too, stock rebuild, high HP turbo engines, etc etc."

So I guess I should go with regular STD kings? https://www.ebay.com/itm/251356140782

"1994-1997 has a coarse pitch crank pulley bolt and 50mm main bearing journals.
1998-2001 has a coarse pitch crank pulley bolt and 55mm main bearing journals."

Sorry I'm a complete H noob.

What would you suggest I gap the rings to?

I'll try to look for a new OEM oil pump but man they're pricy. There's tons of aftermarkets for 50$ but I'm pretty sure those are junk right? I heard Melling's a good one but I'm only finding f22's.
I had another spare used oem pump but it came out very similar in the clearance measurements. It had a little less wiggle on the outer ring. Should there be no wiggle?

 

Yeah I would. Any normal trimetal bearing is going to be your best bet for a mild to moderate street car. Bimetal bearings like aluglides or similar are just junk and shouldn't be used in performance applications. I have mostly used King in the past but ACL are fine too. I am using ACL race bearings in my forged 2.3L but it's not my daily anymore.

The race bearings are hard for a reason but the drawback is as you quoted me. You don't want the bearing to squish or grab the journal when you're really beating on them in high HP builds and the harder surface helps with that. In a street car normally you're not changing the oil every other week and keeping it perfectly clean so there's a good chance you can get some debris stuck between the two and cause little scratches over time.

You will have to mic your main journals to find out which you have. It's hard to tell by just looking and with the generic JDM "H22A" block stamp doesn't help. You could guess based on the head/block date stamps but it's easier to just measure to know for sure.

For the rings, the higher you go the more blowby you'll have so keep that in mind when it comes to crankcase ventilation. It's better to have too much than too little in regards to ring gap. It really depends on how much power you want and what fuel you're gonna use. For a stock turbo H I would typically do about .020" on the top and .032" second. The seconds don't need as much because they see less heat and Honda runs them with a pretty big gap stock. If you're really intending to push it then you can go a little more, especially on the top rings.

Aftermarket oil pumps are junk. I would use what you have before I bought one of them. Get an OEM or don't.

 

Ok I'll gap them to .020" and .032".

What would happen if I just slap it back together with the same bearings and pump? Removing BS will give me some more psi which should help. All the journals looked smooth and good, just mainly bearing surface wear which I'm not entirely sure what it means. Does it normally wear away some with mileage? Or due to every cold start causing some wear as the journals sit on the bearings and rub a little? I heard most of the wear happens at cold starts. Will I be more likely to spin a bearing? I have an oil pressure gauge I will hook up to a sandwhich plate.

These mics look good?
https://www.harborfreight.com/microm...-pc-64202.html
What if the old bearings have more accurate clearances than the one size fits all aftermarkets? So I think I'll run the old pump and possibly get the standard kings. Not sure. New Oem bearings are probably going to be too much.

I will prob use e85 and aim for 400 which my to4e 54 trim maxes out at. Or I could get a bigger turbo and go for 450 which John Kerr says the max I should go.

I'll look up the block color codes tomorrow.

 

Yeah those should be fine.

Usually the aftermarkets run a little on the loose side which is what you want. I wouldn't worry about going with OEM colored bearings personally. I never have at least. Some people are fickle about them and won't use anything else. I really see no reason for that if you can spend 1/10th the cost and get the same result.

 

Well the crank says 4C and the block says 3333 so I guess It's green? I heard green is the most common and will fit the aftermarket STD fine.



Which one of the king bearings is the right one?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/251356140782 Steel aluminum tin bronze compound material (Al20Sn1Cu). Seems like these are bi metals.

Found some Clevite P tri metals


Main bearings - https://www.ebay.com/itm/Clevite-MS2...-/254385574162


I think I'll go with these what do you think? I'm also building my Mazdaspeed 3 at the same time and I'm using Clevite bimetal mains and P series Rod which will be good to 700 hp according to my tuner.

Well I ordered them..

 

Interesting. It looks like King has switched to Bi-metal formulations for some applications within the past few years and their pMax bearings are the only tri-metal units they offer now. They even have a bi-metal race bearing now. I guess I'm not 100% up to date on that stuff.

Either way, you should be fine with the Clevites too. They're just as good. Just check your clearances and then check them again. I always mic and plastigage just to double check myself. Ideally you want them on the looser end of the spec.

Once you get it together, run good oil with high shear and temperature resistance. Any diesel oil like Rotella will work great.

 

I am one of those who prefer graded OEM bearings, I am a bit old fashioned though! I put together an EB3 motor long ago, nearly all stock bottom end. Unfortunately, for that engine, OEM rod/main bearings are pretty much unavailable. Since OEM bearings are probably not a problem for your engine, that's where I'd go! And yes, they'll cost a good deal more. Get an OEM manual, it will explain the bearing grading system.

That little motor has seen a lot of high(8,000+) RPM and for hours on end. Like 120+ for 3 hours, with 4.93 final drive, lots of revs!. BTW, I don't know what's done now but, we wouldn't turn cranks or grind valves because of the Stellite hardening. Less wear with it, more without it. After 20,000 miles I tore it down for a refresh. Bottom end was perfect, all of the wear was on the top-end. But for a few pieces, all of the bottom end is Honda car/motorcycle and well balanced.

 

A small amendment to the last post. For absolute accuracy, the rods were stock but reworked with, ready for it....Corvair rod bolts!

Also, from a local road racer who was spinning his 1200 to 10,000 RPM, a small oil supply mod. He told of cracked oil supply tubes. The thin aluminum tube between the pump and the main bearing web. I had one machined from steel.

OK, the bottom end isn't completely stock.

 

Is there any reason why the second ring gaps are so large? Usually you see the second gap around .003 larger than the top. There needs to be a larger 2nd ring to prevent flutter. For instance I usually see if .020 top then .022 to .024 2nd.

Here they also list a wide range. Obviously for top we'll want it loose for turbo .020. The second ring I thought is an oil scraper ring. Could this loose tolerence be why the h series are famous for burning oil? I measured my new Hastings rings and they came tight. So to open up the second ring to .032 would be a huge amount of filing. Do ring gaps get larger as the rings wear out? The new rings have noticeably more tension which leads me to believe they will be good. I can understand making the top loose but why make the bottom so loose? What does the range mean? Left number new vs limit? I'm tempted to go .020 and .024 bot.

 

The second ring serves as a secondary combustion ring as well as an oil scraper.

It is curious why Honda wanted such a large gap. I don't have a concrete answer. It may be because of the thermal characteristics of the material they used for the second ring.

It's not going to hurt anything being cut wide but it will hurt things if it's tight. Especially in a turbo engine.

 

https://www.enginelabs.com/engine-te...d-piston-ring/

Well I think if gaps are too wide then you will get more blowby, oil consumption and so forth so it seems its a delicate balance. Curious what gaps are you running on your builds? Alot of places I'm reading its better to have looser gaps. It's just weird to me cause this is the first application where I've seen a huge difference between the 1st and 2nd ring. Should I go even looser on the top .022? I'm aiming for 450 whp max on e85.


Some interesting reads lol

 

Ring gap is mainly set by bore size, material, and intended use/power. In forged engines I usually add .002-.004 to what the piston manufacturer recommends. On stock internal engines that will see boost I'll add anywhere from .005-.008 to the top and second. I always build my engines on the looser side of things because it gives you room to grow and mitigate problems. There's an old saying they had in the machine shop I used to work at..."build it loose and only you will know, build it tight and everybody will know."

I believe I already said looser is better and that you will have some blowby. That's the best option over ring flutter/breaking rings and destroying the engine from too tight of a gap. .022 would be fine on the top ring if that's what you desire. I wouldn't overthink it too much. It's not worth min/maxing on a stock engine that is going to have other potential failure points as well.

450whp is really going to stress the OEM rods, regardless of what you set the ring gap too. You may want to have them shot peened to remove any stress risers or potential defects if you really don't want to put forged stuff in it. I don't think they're going to last long at that power level though.

 

Just plastigauged mains and it all seems to be within middle spec. 5 and 4 at .001 and rest around .0015.


5

4

3

3

2

1

All 4 rods came in at .0015.

 

So glad I decided to clean out the oiling holes. All this sludge came out. Right way is to drill out the ball, clean it then tap it closed. There will be hard caked on crap but I think and hope this should be ok. I just used brake cleaner until it came out clear.

Sex