Originally Posted by kuja396

My girl has a 94 civic ex with a 99 ex engine in it. We buy it from a guy that I REALLY shouldnt have, hes always rolling cars and just always beating the **** out of these cars. Like I said, I was a dumbass and bought it from him.

Two weeks go buy and then the engine starts knocking. I pull the engine out and tore it down last night. It turns out to be a rod bearing. It didnt spin so the crank isnt crazy messed up, but it is scratched.

So i go to the honda dealership to learn that there are like 6 different rod bearings! I had NO idea the engine was balanced from the factory so I mixed up the bearings!!!!! Then he tells me that you cant turn a honda crank and they dont make oversized bearings.. Furthermore, a crank is $800 lol.

So now im stuck with wondering what I'm supposed to do about this engine. I have a crank that has scratches in it, and I dont know which bearings go with what piston.

Originally Posted by Links from my notepad [img

https://honda-tech.com/forums/images/smilies/emsmile.gif[/img]]
I am making this thread because I had a hard time finding out how to read the stock bearings to figure out what replacements to order from Honda. Maybe this will save somebody some time...

First, Why would you want to do this? OEM honda bearings are not all the same size, even in the exact same applications. Honda uses slightly different sized bearings, coded by a number and a color.
Second, why not just buy ACL bearings and call it a day? ACL bearings are good quality, and proven in high HP motors, but they do not come in the different tolerances that the OEM ones are available in.... more of a one size fits all. I went with OEM just for a piece of mind, and will be double checking the clearances with plastigauge of course.

First I want to show this chart I have found on here:


each bearing is coded with a number, and a dab of paint. the paint is on the edge of the bearing, the number is stamped on the crank and rod.

Here is how to read the crank bearings:

(I put the red type over the stampings on the crank, they didnt show up well in the pics)

This pic shows where you will get the numbers from for the crank bearings. Also it is important that you NOT mix up the order of your bearings when you take the bottom end of your motor apart! Write it down and label them with a marker- if you get them mixed up, you made a ton more work for yourself. <IMG NAME="icon" SRC="https://honda-tech.com/forums/images/smilies/emthdown.gif" BORDER="0">

so from the pic, you can see that bearings from left to right read 3, 2, 3, 3, 2. the "6" that is stamped in the cast area does not matter, only the smaller stamed #'s in the flat parts of the crank matter.

Now after you write those down in order, look at the other half of the bearings for the color.


the dab of paint can be hard to see (not visible in pic), it is on the thin edge in the center of the half circle. Also be sure you have your bearings in the right order here, not 180° backwards, <IMG NAME="icon" SRC="https://honda-tech.com/forums/images/smilies/emthup.gif" BORDER="0">
(brown looked more like orange, green was easy to see)

So I need one "Brown 3" bearing two "Brown 2" bearings and two "Green 3" bearings. Go to the parts counter at the dealer and that is what you tell them.

Looking back at the chart, you can see that these are close in size. if one of them was a "Pink 1" I might double check my readings since that is so far from the rest of the bearings.

Rod time

on the left is the OEM D16z6 rod. Right is Eagle aftermarket rods.
All the OEM roda have a number of 1-4 stamped on them. The number is on one of the edges where the cap meets the rod. All the stock rods had the "2" stamped on them. That is your number for the rod bearing. For finding the color, use the same method as before and look for the dab of paint on the edges of the bearings. Mine were all green.

So if I was going to use these rods again, I would go to the dealer and order a set of four "Green 2" rod bearings.
Since I am using aftermarket rods instead, I need to get the correct size for those.
I did some searching on here and found that the Eagle rods are the equivelant of #3 oem rods for D-series. (they also said B-series are equivelant to #2)
So I would buy four "Green 3" rod bearings.

And that's how to figure out what size OEM bearings to use when re-building your D-series <IMG NAME="icon" SRC="https://honda-tech.com/forums/images/smilies/emsmile.gif" BORDER="0">
And double check ALL clearances with plastigauge!
let me know if I forgot anything so I can keep this how-to accurate <IMG NAME="icon" SRC="https://honda-tech.com/forums/images/smilies/emthup.gif" BORDER="0">

Here is a chart of Honda B series bearing thickness by color. To calculate actual bearing clearance, use the following formula:

BC = IDBT – ODC – (2 x BT)

BC = bearing clearance
IDBT = inside diameter of bearing tunnel (housing bore)
ODC = outside diameter of crank journal
BT = bearing thickness

<U>Main Bearing thickness by color</U>
Blue 2.013-2.010 mm 0.0793”- 0.0791”
Black 2.010-2.007 mm 0.0791”- 0.0790”
Brown 2.007-2.004 mm 0.0790”- 0.0789”
Green 2.004-2.001 mm 0.0789”- 0.0788”
Yellow 2.001-1.998 mm 0.0788”- 0.0787”
Pink 1.998-1.995 mm 0.0787”- 0.0785”
Red 1.995-1.992 mm 0.0785”- 0.0783”

<U>Rod bearing thickness by color</U>
Blue 1.510-1.507 mm 0.0594”- 0.0593”
Black 1.507-1.504 mm 0.0593”- 0.0592”
Brown 1.504-1.501 mm 0.0592”- 0.0591”
Green 1.501-1.498 mm 0.0591”- 0.0590”
Yellow 1.498-1.495 mm 0.0590”- 0.0589”
Pink 1.495-1.492 mm 0.0589”- 0.0587”
Red 1.492-1.489 mm 0.0587”- 0.0586”

Although most people do not have inside micrometers, bearing micrometers or snap gauges, you can still use this chart when using plastigage to check bearing clearance. If you want to increase or decrease a bearing clearance, you can calculate how much of a color change is necessary by looking at the changes on the chart. Remember you can mix colors for even a more fine-tuning but it would not be wise to jump more than one color. In other words, do not mix a brown and yellow bearing together to equal a green clearance value. Just use the greens together. It is ok to mix a green with a yellow or a green with a brown. When doing your rebuild and replacing bearings with like colors, you still must check your results with plastigage to be sure. Don’t assume anything. Also remember, when swapping to aftermarket rods, throw the color codes away as they will not work anymore. You need to start from scratch to obtain your desired clearance. On the other hand, you really cannot measure accurately to the nearest .0001” without machinist quality tools, so don’t get carried away on that last one ten thousandth of an inch variance.