I was talking to the owner of the only shop in my area who knows anything about Honda motors today. He told me it would be best to keep my existing bearings if they are in good condition, when I rebuild my motor. He said I wouldn't have to worry about the "brake in" time required on new bearings. I thought this was the stupidest thing I have ever heard!!! Anyone else ever hear of rebuilding a motor that way?

Oh, don't get me wrong, Im not asking if I should do this!

 

It sounds stupid to me too. If you have enough miles on it for a rebuild the bearings would have wear on them too. I guarantee your clearances if they are measured will be greater than with new bearings. My opinion is he is trying to set himself up for future work when the existing bearings go south. Hell there is going to be a break-in time for the rings. I guess you have new ones of those. They take longer to break-in than the bearings do. I would reconsider letting this guy touch my engine.


[Modified by virginia_dude, 11:33 AM 2/13/2002]

 

Im not going to let him touch my engine. I was just talking to him cause hes the only person in my area who "seems" to know a little about hondas. Im going to do my rebuild my self with:

JE 9.5:1 pistons, 81.5mm
Eagle Rods
all new main & rod bearings
GSR oil pump
GSR water pump
GSR timing belt
all new gaskets
z10 block gridle
ARP head studs


Im going to have my stock block bored out .5mm. I would like to have the block resleeved by GE but I can't afford to be without my engine for too long.

 

Yeah it's always a good idea to plastigauge the bearings too. Is this a performance shop or just some local mechanic that told you that bs?

 

It called Asian Auto. He a ASE cerified mechanic who does engine swaps, rebuilds, sells some JDM stuff, says the Phantom Grip is one of the best LSDs on the market, and does general machanic work on Asain car. He told me he used to work for Jackson Racing, and used to have a performance shop in LA. Im not quite sure about the guy, thats why Im not going to let him work on my car.

 

If your forking over cash for a rebuild do it right. How much are a set of bearings compaired to the cost of everything else. Not much, right. The crank should be checked for out of round conditions on the mains and jounals too. Anything worth spending bucks to do is worth doing right.

 

fo real.. that sounds stupid, ur gonna have the block apart anyway, just do it, instead of having to do it a year or two down the road.. on my last car, i changed everything from the radiator to engine mounts when i did my rebuild, and as long as u break it in properly, its worth it

 

the reason that some shops reuse the original bearings is because honda motors are so well put together in the first place.the bearing clearances are much tighter and uniform than in other companies products. reusing takes the whole plastigauge process out of the mix. as long as you plastigauge everything you should be fine.