Alright, so I'm building a b18b (or maybe a) block. I installed GSR arp main studs, and a GSR girdle using mains 234 from a GSR (never been align bored either)

My block is a straight B and my crank is a straight 2 with I believe one of them set as a 1 (i think #5 is a 1, or maybe 3) anyways, this means that my block bores are very small, and my crank journals are very large. I can feel a lip on the mains from the GSR block (indicating that they are actually all A's meaning, even smaller than mine!

Based off this, I think that I should ask the machine shop to simply hone the bores back into round, rather than having them do a full on bore? I know adding the arp studs (torqued to 75lbs, arp says to do it to 80 in the sheet it came with, but that just seems NUTS)

I haven't checked to see how the crank feels with my old bearings, but I know they would be out of round (but which way do they go out of round? My brain says that there would be more clearance on the sides, and tighter up and down, is this correct?)

I search and search and all I find are arguments about boring and honing the mains on honda blocks, some say hell no, others say hell yes, this crap.

Being that my clearances from the factory are very small, Should I just ask the shop to do an align bore back to the factory size (minimizing the amount of material actually removed) By doing this I'm wondering if I might get lucky, and that the amount of material that is removed is minimal at best, allowing me to retain the use of stock bearings.

The only reason for doing the align hone is because I'm now using caps 234 from a GSR engine (which are smaller than mine, and I believe are A bearings) and because I'm using ARP studs torqued to 75lbs (thus altering the shape of the bores themselves)

 

a) you're gonna have to have it line bored since you're not using the original caps to the block.

b) torque the studs to whatever ARP says to. since you're gonna have to get it line bored anyway, might as well.

 

Sounds good. Another 5lbs should hurt hah. I suppose it will need to be bored. I know for sure the caps are extremely close as far as tolerances go since my block is a straight B block, and that only leaves the possibility of my new mains to be A's

So i guess the correct course of action is request the shop to Align bore it using an OEM sized bore.

 

I'd bore it and save the trouble of maybe running into problems later. The bearing caps, cam and main are line bored together. Swapping them around buys you into issues.

 

Yeah that's the plan. I'm gonna have them bore it back to OEM spec. I'm actually a little lucky because my engine's main bores are on the small side, and the GSR main caps I swapped in are actually smaller still, giving me some meat needed to bore it without messing up anything like the centerline.