going to start putting my engine together. Was wondering about something...

When you put the crank in and torque down the mains, you are supposed to have the engine mounted upside down so the crank is resting on the block-side bearings, not the cap bearings - this gives you an accurate measurement of the clearance between crank and main cap bearings...

But what about the bearing clearance on the block side? Do you just always use the same size bearing as on the main cap side? Do you flip the block over, put the plastigauge on the crank, set it on the main caps, and then lift it up to the block to torque it down? which do you do first?

<--- confused.

 

 

you only plastigauge the cranck/cap. bottom you use the same

 

so if it is determined that the bearing clearance is off, you replace both the top and bottom bearing.... i.e. the bearing size will always be the same between the two?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Greyout &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">so if it is determined that the bearing clearance is off, you replace both the top and bottom bearing.... i.e. the bearing size will always be the same between the two?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yes.

You should look into ACL bearings, then you won't have to worry about what size to use. I am rebuilding my first engine and I struggled with this whole bearing issue. I ended up using ACL bearings, everything measured within spec.

If you search you will see that no one who used them had one bad thing to say about them.

 

a bearing is a bearing, how does size not matter

 

i use acl bearings too and they plastigauged right were i wanted them. acl's are green/brown.
Great quality.