I'm respectfully pleading for assistance. I have spent more time searching this site in the past several months than I can consider "sane." I have 42 open tabs in my pc browser, 35 in my phone browser, over 50 bookmarked pages, 4 pages of hand written notes, and 3 manuals. This is purely a time crunch issue, so I need some assistance sorting the wheat from the chaff.

Basic rundown: H23av going into a '96 Prelude. Some of you may have seen my thread and pics seeking advice about a pretty foul swap. Initially, the direction I have been headed is towards a stock bottom and fully build out everything else. Decided a few weeks ago when I took my head to the machine shop to just go ahead and have the block honed and the crank polished. Figured it was the smart thing to do. All my tolerances were well within range, but the rod bearings especially showed a little wear. It's been sitting at the machine shop, completed, for about a week and a half, just waiting for me to have the time to go pick it up. (I'm going first thing in the morning.) $1500 worth of "first round" parts are sitting in my house ready to assemble. I just flat-out haven't had the time to educate myself on the confusing color-coded Honda bearing system, and now, due to circumstances, I find myself with an absolute deadline of next Saturday to have this thing back on the road, or I'm going to have to buy another car just to have something presentable to park in front of a customer's house for the next month.

The block main journals are stamped 23333. There are no stamps on the crank to indicate rod journal range. The internals of my engine were so badly browned that I can't make out the colors on the original bearings, even after trying to clean with brake cleaner, gasoline, and Purple Power. When I dropped the crank off, the machinist gauged it, and showed me that it matched his book specs to within a tenth (.0001"), so no issue there. I'll post the exact measurements tomorrow, if it will help. If you've seen the bearing color chart, maybe you can understand my confusion. I don't have time to order from Honda, get it not quite right, and order again.

My basic question is this: if given the option, are Honda bearings the way to go, or are ACL or similar just as good or better? If Honda, how do I best go about figuring which colors or color combinations to get? If aftermarket, am I going to run into issues with standard "one-size-fits-all" sets, being that my main journals are not all the same? Will I need to mix and match aftermarket? My understanding is that they only come in standard, .25 & .50. The reason for my stress is purely that the mains aren't identical. Spinning a bearing on a $5000 project would be a major BOO!

I promise you that if I had the time, I would gladly research this ad nauseum. Please don't flame me, as I do not ask for assistance frivolously. I really do need to lean on the collective knowledge and good will of the Honda-tech community just this once. Thank you in advance!

 

In your situation, if you can get a set of the standard ACL bearings for your crank size ( 50 or 55 mm) do it. Check them with Plastigauge as you assemble to ensure that they are within spec, and if they are too far out, you can get one of the other spec. sets.

In my budget builds I have used King brand bearings, and they have held up for 3000 miles in one build and so far ~6000 miles in my current bottom end, which is an H23 crank that I rev to 8500 rpm. I also have balance shafts properly deleted, no oil squirters etc, so that I have maximum crankshaft oiling.

 

That said, if you had more time, you would be well suited to properly measure each main, each rod, and each spot on your crankshaft to get the proper clearances, and order Honda bearings to suit. Then you would still double check them during assembly and change them if needed to get the proper clearances. More time consuming, and more expensive, but it would be the best route.

 

Thank you very much, snobordboy. I came to realize that I was misunderstanding the stamps on the block after the machinist patiently explained it to me. Those numbers are crank diameter at the journals, not the block diameter. It doesn't help that both are called "crank journals." I appreciate you giving me a straightforward answer. I'm going to leave this thread open, since it has an easily searchable title. Hopefully someone else can find the simplicity of your answer useful in the future. (Does this BB have a rep system? You need a +1)

As a follow up, my rush was all for naught. When I dropped the block off at the machinist, it was completely disassembled, but with the pistons still in it so they would have the correct order to stamp them. They told me that as soon as they pushed the pistons out, the top rings on all four completely fell apart. (Sure do wish they would've called me 2 weeks ago.) The top ringlands are completely trashed, so now I'll go back to searching on this site for viable replacements. Looks like I'll be buying a car this week. (and probably looking for a BMW-tech site ) I was SO CLOSE! I had toyed around with the idea of a full build at the beginning of this project, so I guess now I have the time. Fate has forced my hand to build a monster. I accept the challenge!