ive been working on my motor for a whole week trying to find out which bearings to get. i have crower rods and ive tried brown, yellow, pink, red, and even a set of acl that i have purchase buy earl. i thought acl where surpose to work but they where still to tight. i havent tried black, blue, and green. does anyone have the same problem? can anyone help? im trying to do it myself but if not then im taking it to earl.

 

What procedure are you using to measure the bearing clearances? What numbers are you getting with each color?

 

i plastigauge them and i got for the brown .001 the yellow was a little bigger it didnt read on the gauge, the pink was .0011 still not in specs and the red didnt read on the gauge either. the acl read the same as brown .001. could i be doing something wrong? i did what the honda bible said to.

 

I think you are not torquing the bolts down correctly between tests, or you are reading the plastigauge incorrectly/not carefully enough.

Keep in mind, the differences in the bearings halves are on the order of 0.0001" of an inch. If you up or down size both bearing shells, you get a net change of 0.001" of an inch. Both of those are FAR to small for your eye to see, thus you have to use the plastigauge measuring strip carefully.

For example, on one journal, put a set of green bearings (upper and lower shell) in. Torque the bolt down to spec and take a measurement. If you get a reading of say, 0.0017" then you will want to get bearing shells that are 2 sizes thicker.

You also need to know what size the journal itself is.. on the crank, there are a set of LETTERS stamped on the edge of the block where the oilpan gasket sits on. The letters corrospond to the size of the crank journals.

On the rods, there is a number stamped on the side of the big end, that number tells you the size of the big end.

Using those letters/numbers you know what color set of bearings you should be using.

Hope that helps.


[Modified by G3-TEG, 11:57 AM 9/3/2002]

 

Just to clarify on the bearing sizes...

I said 0.0017" you'll need 2 sizes thicker.. meaning, if you only change one HALF of the shell to a thicker bearing, then the new clearance will be 0.0016". If you switch both shells to one size thicker, then you will get 0.0015".

Thus, if you change BOTH shells 2 sizes thicker, then the new clearance will be 0.0013" which is the tighter end of spec for the rod bearings on a B18C1.

Hope that helps.

 

let me get this straight so i can mix color bearings? example i could use one brown half and a pink half?

 

on type r blocks yes, thats why the codes are different.

1) are you taking the caps back off after plastiguaging without smearing like hitting the cap or something to that effect ?

2) did you try to use crank journal codes and size up to a #3 rod ? most crower seem to size up to #3 with some exceptions.

greg

 

You can mix colors but only one step at a time. You cant mix pink and brown but you CAN mix pink with yellow or pink with red (since they are next to each other in the scale). But this is not your problem. Something is goofy in your set up and you are welcome to bring it by. All my promised motors are done now and we need to mic your rods and crank to see what the problem is.

 

Cheetah, his engine is actually freezing up when he installs the rods. Same with honda or acl bearings. I think he may have the wrong rods but not sure without seeing them.