I recently put in Type S pistons and I replaced the rod bearings. The bearings are all color coded, my no. 1 was green and the rest were brown. The thing is that it's real tought to turn the crank. I lubed up the bearings and did everything by the Helms manual. Does anyone here have experience with installing new rod bearings? Is your crank gonna be that tight before the engine breaks in.

 

You checked all the clearances, right? Are the rods and pistons in? The crank should turn pretty easilly without the rods. It will be pretty hard to turn with the rods and pistons on. It also depends what you use for lube. If you use a moly type grease it will obviously turn harder than with an oil type lube. When I rebuilt my H22, I stuck a few of the flywheel bolts in the crank and used a piece of wood to turn the crank. I'd *guess* it took 15-20 ftlbs to turn it over with the new rods, pistons, and everything. Good luck, let us know how it goes...

 

When i built my engine and installed the new bearings the crank was very hard to turn as well, but all of my bearings were one color. As long as you properly lubed your bearings you should be fine. As far as mixing colors, im not really sure about that. Check out this site for bearing identification if you dont already have a manual, its not for a prelude though but it might clear up some things you dont understand. If i had my manual with me i would scan it for you, hopefully someone else will post a chart up for you specifically for your motor.

http://www.muller.net/sonny/cr....html

 

I'm talking really hard maybe like 100 newtons of torque at first, but once it got turning it was easier only getting stuck sometimes. Let's just say I had it all together and had dirven it for on day about 50 miles, and then the next day I warmed it up for about twenty minutes and then left I got about a mile down the road and's started going up a hill in third, I would have normally down shifted but I didn't want the RPM's up since it was a newly rebuilt, It barely made it to the top. after I got to the top of the hill she shut down, there was no noises or anything. I put it in neautral and, coasted down the hill. All the fluids are fine, and the temp was normal. I tried to start it but, the crank wouldn't turn all the way over. It's not seized up but it's to tight for the starter to turn. When I get home from work I'm going to try to turn the crank manually. If she turns over I'll be happy

 

"to tight for the starter to turn" Hmm. That is really not sounding good. Once the engine has run some, it should be much easier to turn over than when it's first assembled. Did you check all your clearances? Bearing clearances, piston to bore clearances, ring end-gap, etc? Sounds like something is tight. You remembered the thrust bearings, right?

 

Well I tried turning the crank manualy and boy was it tight. When the no. 2 and 3 are down and supposed to start coming up it won't budge. It will go backwards until it comes to that point again. This was my first rebuild, and I know I messed up. But I seem to be confused, the no. 2 and no. 3 top part of the rods slid down onto the crank when I was installing it. It's the bottom part of those rods that didn't slide up all the way snug. I had to tighten them up in order for them to snug up. That is a big no no. It seems obvious that this is what is grabbing the crank and not letting it turn. I'm wondering why it ran and then just quit. I'm thinking that I spun those bearings. What do you guys think is worse case senario, I bent the crank or what? I was going around 5 mph when it came to a hault so I hope not. I've got another crank, so I'm not to worried. It just alot of work. I'll pull the oil pan tommorrow and see the damage. Help me out guys, I need some badly.

 

Anybody have any knowledge on this subject?

 

I'm not following your description of the rods, but I think you will have to pull the oil pan off and take a look. If the crank and rods are not dammaged, you can probably replace the rod bearings with the engine in the car. Check the oil for metal when you drain it and look in the pan too. When you get the pan off, take the rod caps off and keep them in order. See if the crank turns easilly. If it's still binding you probably have main bearing problems. If it's ok, inspect the rod journals. If they are badly burned or gauled you will have to take the crank out and replace it or have the journals refinished and everything checked out. Same with the rods. If that all looks ok, try pushing the pistons up and down by hand. If one of them is siezed up, that could be causing your problems, not the bearings. If that's ok, you can try replacing the rod bearings. There is a thing called plastigage you can get at most autoparts stores. Use this to check the clearance on the rod bearings. Make sure the rods are in the right way, caps on right, etc. Just follow the helm. Good luck...

 

Did you plasti-guage everything to meake sure every thing was to spec. Just beacuse you put the same color bearing back in with different rods does not mean that the clearance will always be the same. I'd re-check it again just incase. Better to be safe than sorry.

 

Basically what I was trying to say is that I think I mixed up the rod caps, and I was confused about how this would make a difference since three of the rods had the same no. on them and the same color of bearing. The rods had a no. 1 on them and the other one had a no. 2. So what your saying is even if you mixed up the three rod caps that have the same no. on them, I could have clearance problems. I know the pistons moved smoothly, but when I tried to put the rod caps on the no.2 and no.3 rods they didn't slide up around the crank snug. It was almost like they were two wide. The rod and rod caps only came together when I tightened them up with the torque wrench. I believe this is what I'll find when I pull the oil pan tonight. My crank would turn, until the no. 2 and no. 3 rods are at the bottom of the cylinders, when most of the rod is between the crank

 

I dunno for sure if mixing up caps would mess with your clearances. I think it could, because I believe that the rod and cap are machined together, which means they are not intended to be interchangeable with other rods. The rod bolts have a section that is just the right diameter to line up the cap with the rod. If you had to torque the bolts down to get the caps to go on, it seems like there was a misalignment between the parts. When you take the caps off again, keep track of their order and inspect the bearings. If one bearing is wearing heavilly on the side towards the front rod bolt, and another is wearing heavilly on the side towards the rear rod bolt, then maybe those two got swapped? Just a thought. Also, the rods are stamped with a number. You may be able to tell which cap goes with which rod by carefully inspecting how the stamp markings line up between the rod and cap. Also, check the simple stuff, like that all the bearing tangs are together and all the rods are facing the right way, the thrust bearings are in, all the oil passages are clean and clear, etc. Either way, you still need to check clearances when you install bearings.

 

Well Ipulled my oil pan last night and I spun the no 4 rod bearing, that's why it wouldn't turn past that point. All the other bearings were cool, thay had no wear on them. The journal that holds the no. 4 rod had lost it's shine and isn't smooth anymore. I wouldn't say that it is badly gauled, I may be able to get it smooth again without removing the crank. What do you guys think?

 

don't try smoothing it while it's in the car, you could end up obonging the journal on the crank, sorry man, but your gonna have to pull the engine, tear it down, and haev the crank polished, might as well pay the $150-200 and get ALL new bearings, rod and main, while your at it