I am building a motor for daily driving, I want to cut through the BS. Should I use thinner bearings to get a larger clearance, or should I stay with the recommended clearances that Helms suggests. I have heard that builders like MASE for example with the EVO build measured cleances for hours/days to find one that suits the build. Is this necessary? The motor is a b16, I would like to make about 350whp using a t3/t4 57trim with a .48 hot side and .60 cold.

Is there a magic number? I just dont want to have to build it twice.

 

the magic number is .0015" to .0020"

It's up to you what you want out of the motor. Honestly I don't know how big of a difference 5 ten thousandths really makes... and plastigauge only has .0005 resolution (accuracy), so if you were targeting .0017 for example...you wouldn't have a way of measuring that.

On my own build I targeted .0016-18" but according to the plastigauge readings I was somewhere in between .0015 and .0020

I used a stock crank and eagle rods. I measured the rod big end bore diameters to .0001" accuracy and the same with the journals, then calculated which color bearings to go with.




Modified by Speed Industry at 7:22 AM 2/27/2007

 

.015-.017

 

I always get .0015 to .0017 on customer's motor.

 

Thanks guys. That makes things alot easier.
What do you think about ring gap?
Top ring at .223
2nd ring at .248

I think I would rather have more blow by.