im soon to embark on my first engine build, as i just shipped out my b20z block to be bored to 84.5 mm and have the crank and internals balanced polished etc. ive been researching pretty hard on different bearings and have narrowed it down to either acl or oem. i understand that i can pick and choose clearances by using the oem color system, but is this really necessary on a street/possibly lightly autox'd motor? i have read that the acl bearings have a superior construction to oem and are right around the size of the oem greens and browns? if i order standard acl's for this build, how likely is it that my clearances will all be within spec, for rods and mains? i do realize that the block shows which bearings i should use but that this should be disregarded bc i have aftermarket rods. any advice would be awesome!
notes-
polished crank
eagle rods
12:1 comp cp pistons
84.5 b20 block
which bearings should i go with?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by be18see1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">im soon to embark on my first engine build, as i just shipped out my b20z block to be bored to 84.5 mm and have the crank and internals balanced polished etc. ive been researching pretty hard on different bearings and have narrowed it down to either acl or oem. i understand that i can pick and choose clearances by using the oem color system, but is this really necessary on a street/possibly lightly autox'd motor? i have read that the acl bearings have a superior construction to oem and are right around the size of the oem greens and browns? if i order standard acl's for this build, how likely is it that my clearances will all be within spec, for rods and mains? i do realize that the block shows which bearings i should use but that this should be disregarded bc i have aftermarket rods. any advice would be awesome!
notes-
polished crank
eagle rods
12:1 comp cp pistons
84.5 b20 block
which bearings should i go with?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Im going to say that correct bearing clearances is very important in any motor you build. It's one of the biggest part that affects the engines life. With ACL bearings, it's either a "hit or miss," just like plasti-gauges. If u are not planning to do any modifications to your crank journals or your crank journal housings ect. ect., then spend the extra cash for some Honda OEM bearings and adjust your clearances to what you want. Forget the honda codes on your crank or block, because you already ruin it by polishing the crank. If you don't have any presice measuring tools to mic anything, then i would suggest contacting a local machine shop that can help you measure out your clearances and provide a spec sheet or a blue print data.
good luck
-Kevin

 

also,you could have the shop size your rods for what ever clearances you want with the acl's,and then use oem on the mains since that hasnt changed. the ls rod bearings are iffy,but all b-series main bearings are the same

 

so i should pick a clearance, say .0017", and have the shop size my rods with acl rod bearings for that clearance? i know i can just measure the i.d. of my mains and the o.d. of my crank journals and use those to pick what clearances id like to run. i kind of wondered what i should use for rod bearings. it appears that acl would be the best choice?

 

after the price of getting machine work done you could have picked an OEM bearing that would have done the job

 

acl's are superior to the b20/ls rod bearings though

 

true.^ thats what ive read/heard all over the place. ill probably just order acl's for the rods and hope for the best.

 

get the RACE series one they have a little xtra clearence something like .0001" ...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by b20vtech &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">get the RACE series one they have a little xtra clearence something like .0001" ... </TD></TR></TABLE>

Theyre .0005" each shell and .001" overall. And thats not necessarily if you get any race bearing. They have the "Race" series bearing thats their normal thickness, you just have to make sure the part number ends in HX, to make sure youre getting the shells with the extra half a thou.

 

im going to run standards bc this is a street motor. i dont need to sacrifice any reliability/longevity for power.

 

eagle rods are considered # 3's on the color chart for Non vtec blocks that is! so if for an exmpl. your crank was a B and your rod was a 2 the bearing should have been yellow. now that your using eagles treat the rod as if its a number 3 so your rod bearing color would be green now!

Stick with oem bearings for perfect clearances without line honing or boring out journals or big end bores.

dont forget to double check with Green PG

OEM

if you want more clearance for racing go with half colors


brown/green
green/yellow
yellow/pink
pink/red

and so on!

Good Luck

 

will having the crank honed affect my clearances by a significant amount or can i still rely on its letter as being accurate?

 

i wouldnt worry about it it will just make a lil bit more clearance nothing dramatic. just use the method i told you and you will be ok. remember eagles for nonV are considered #3's follow that and youll be ok the green plasticguage will make you feel better once checked

i had a crank with all B's across the rods and i used eagle rods so i was B3 across the board polished the crank slapped it together and had 14-16 thous across perfect clearance! all greens for me

 

awesome! this is good news. i dont have a helms for the b20/ls motor, but id assume that the specs are the same to that of a vtec motor, correct? im sorry for all these questions, but this i really want to get this right. to those who have helped me!

 

eagle rods for a vtec motor are number 2's all other specs are similar except rod torq stock rods are 23lbs for ls b20 rods and vtec rods are 33lbs all main cap bolts are 56lbs.

ring end gaps clocking and clerances are typical. just im me bro i will help you out! OR IMME ON AIM

JAKESPECCRX IM ON ALL DAY @ WORK

 

ill try to hit you up on aim tomorrow then.