I bought a rebuild kit for my B18B1 Acura motor, it is from a company called Rock Products, they make rings, bearings, etc. Any one heard of them? Anyways I put the engine together without plastiguaging the bearings (I know this is a useless step that can be easly done away with, just kidding) Anyways I am a bit leary about using The bearings and rings from this company, when I called their technical department today and found the lady answereing the phone there did not even know what a plastiguage is, scared me for some reason. Therefore I am only led to believe that this is a crap product and I will be pulling the engine to replace all Rock Products with the exception of the oil pump (which is also Rock) My question is how does one find someone selling ACL I have done a little digging an found they have a good rep out there, but can not find anyone that stocks them. My Engine is a B18B1. I would like to go OEM, but do not have the funds for such a venture. The piston Rings are also Rock not sure If I should pull them and replace them also, if so with what brand? The car is a 1998 Integra which I bought brand new and now has 388,000 miles on it. I do not hot rod it thats why it lasts so long I guess.

 

the cheapest place i have ever found ACL bearings from is from this ebay vendor: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...photo

if you searh thru his store you will also find incredible deals on most other engine components/gaskets etc.....

 

Thanks for the response, I am checking them out $81.96 mains. picked up a plasti guage from pep boys today. what about the rings? change them out or leave them?

 

that would be your call.....since you have the engine apart and out why not replace the rings also.

and if you check the link i sent you its $31.96 for rod bearings AND main bearings AND thrust washers. you cant beat that price.

 

I ended up finding them in a Ebay store CNS Autoparts about $91 shipped for the race bearings. I called them to see If I could combine shipping on a set of rings still waiting to hear back from them, not sure what kind to go with, whats good? One more thing, I have been asking around on this subject: when I built my engine I may have mixed around the pistons and do not know which came out of which cylinder since I did not mark them, does it matter if they are not in the right cylinder when I went back together with it? All arrows however are pointing to the timing belt.


Modified by dgie at 11:36 AM 7/4/2008

 

honestly i dont know why you bought the race bearings. they will fit slightly looser. but since you say you want to plastigauge the bearings just make sure they fall within spec if they do then perfect. if not you will be ordering another set of bearings.

obviously now it would be to late to know which piston came out of which cylinder if you did not mark them before removing. if you have access to proper bore gauges and proper micrometers etc.. you could measure the bores and pistons and make sure they will give you the proper clearences. but honestly if you had the engine running with the pistons mixed up already chances are they are all pretty close. just leave it as is.




Modified by non-VTEC at 9:03 PM 7/4/2008

 

Have a machine shop balance the rotating assembly for good measure. NPR rings are good.

 

I ordered the Race ones not knowing there is a different size associated to them. My thinking was that they are all standard and follow the green bearings of Honda. I am trying to contact the people I purchased them from to see if I can swap them out for regular ACL bearings and NPR rings. Hopefully it will not be a problem, everyone is closed for the long holiday though, so it may be a Monday morning thing. I think I will have everything balanced as mentioned. That way I will know everything is good, when I go back together. I guess this motor is my learning curve, have to start somewhere I guess. Better to know now, then later after I started the motor to find I did something wrong. New question.... Since the motor is back together and I am going to pull the head back off to change out the rings, can I reuse the Head gasket since the motor has not been started yet. Or is it history since the head has been torqued?

 

hmmmm........tough call on the headgasket.....most people say once you torque it down it compresses and should not be reused.....but since you have not even heat cycled the engine it "may" be ok.....but for what a new one cost i would rather be safe than sorry. just get a new gasket.

 

Sounds good, new question I really am up in the air about going with these ACL bearings vs oem. If I went oem I would have to get the color coded bearings. I think I have figured out the mains. they come out to this: Yellow, green, brown, green, pink. Taken from the code on the engine and crank. The new issue is what piston came from what cylinder. I am thinking I would have to know which ones which if the number designation that I will need is on the side of the rod. Is this right? Aslo do you also plistiguage the rod end bearings?

 

I forgot to add this: not trying to start a OEM vs ACL debate. Just wanting to know what I would need to do if I decided to go OEM. This car is Not a racer just a dependable cruiser.

 

just use the ACL bearings. 9 times out of 10 they will fall within specs.

 

Sounds like good advice, I will see if they will switch them out with the non race type tomorrow.