Stupid me, Bad size rod bearings own me(update)
 

Well I was told by someone that it would be fine to use a standard size medium(green) bearing on the connecting rods, well my build went good, I got the engine fired up for the first time today.
The engine runs but now I have that ------- clanking sound from the bottom end, tomorrow I'm going to pull the oil pan and the cradle and read the rods and crank to see what exact bearings I need. then I'll take a bus to honda and get the right parts. ---- this is gonna cost me an arm and a leg. oh well lesson learned.

Re: Stupid me, Bad size rod bearings own me.
 

you didnt spec it out with plastigauge? :o Somtimes the "green" bearings will work, but it all has to be in spec, ideally you should spec out each bearing on each rod and main

Edit: your lucky you didnt spin a bearing... that woulda really messed up stuff

Re: Stupid me, Bad size rod bearings own me.
 

no didnt spin one since this is the motor I just rebuild from ground up and threw in, the noise was there rignt from when I started it. oh well, looks like I gotta go find me some bearings tomorrow.

Plastiguage is only used to determine if an existing bearings should be replaced on an old motor, what I need to do is read the crank, read the rod and get the proper color bearing.

Re: Stupid me, Bad size rod bearings own me.
 

You use it to spec out new bearings as well. Always, if you replace bearings, plastigauge them, even if they are the right color. You also need the big end size of the rod (stamped across the big end near the rod bolt where the cap meets the rod) to help determine what size bearing you need.

Re: Stupid me, Bad size rod bearings own me.
 

When I was repairing my D16Z6 a parts store clerk at a Honda dealership told me I could use the green bearings on all rods because the difference is insignificant. Luckily I did not. If that was true why didn't the manufacturer installed all green bearings ???. I found out they don't stock the other colors and that could be why he recommended all green >:(. It might work in some engines but I would never recommend it.

Re: Stupid me, Bad size rod bearings own me.
 

if you started it up and you heard clanking. you definatly have rod knock. which probably spun a bearing and messed up the rod and the crank. so if you havent taken it apart already i wouldnt just go buy bearings to see whats going on. even if it was a brand new motor you built from the ground up doesnt mean you cant spin a bearing when you first start it up ::)

Re: Stupid me, Bad size rod bearings own me.
 

u fucked ur crank guaranteed if u had a real knock
while ur at honda get the list price for a crank also :-X

Re: Stupid me, Bad size rod bearings own me.
 

Always..... Always plastigauge your bottom end if you are replacing your rods, crank or putting in a new set of bearings.

The only time you can kinda look the other way is if you replace every bearing with a brand new one that is the exact same on each journal. Remember some halfs can be a green/yellow or brown/green combo. Thats why its important to see what comes out of the
engine and keep them together.

If your ---- is knocking right from the getgo.. eh, thats ugly. Just hope that journal is ok, dont expect it to last to long :-\

Re: Stupid me, Bad size rod bearings own me.
 

two questions: 1) what is the name of tool that takes off the bottom rod cap. they are a bitch to take off. any help


2) since my crank was shaved and lightened it has the mark 10/10 on it. my buddy says that the crank has been balanced 10 over 10. so im not that wooried about that as much but about how do i figure what size bearings. i was given .025 but they seemed to tight? how do i measure the crank for the right bearing.

and yes i know this should be in a differant forum. but since this engine spun a bearing i felt it ok.

Re: Stupid me, Bad size rod bearings own me.
 

i took engines in wyotech, but lemme get this straight for when i rebuild my vg30dett, i dont wanna spin the crank and fuckup my eagle rods... so you measure the crank with a micrometer on each journal, record all of that, check it all with spec, if its in spec then i use the regular size rod bearings.. then i put them in with plastiguage, torque it, check it to spec again, and if everything is in spec, then its good to go? thats how you do it right?

Re: Stupid me, Bad size rod bearings own me.
 

Well I called honda and their tech guy told me that if I didnt run the engine for too long (which I didnt) that I will be fine, just get the right size bearings and its going to be fine. he told me that the oil clearance might be a few thousanths of an inch too big which makes the bottom end tick like that.

Re: Stupid me, Bad size rod bearings own me.
 

while i believe this to be true, i didnt do it to my flat rate re-build on the ZC. I just bought some Clevite77 bearings and slapped them on. No plasti-gauge no nothing. Guess i got lucky cause the car runs fine.

Re: Stupid me, Bad size rod bearings own me.
 

You sure it's your bearings? I put ACL bearings in my motor and they all were in spec and my oil pressure is great but my engine "ticks" a lot because of the vitaras. The vitaras slap, a lot.

Re: Stupid me, Bad size rod bearings own me.
 

NO plastigauge is used to measure clearence between the cranks surface and the rods surface. u need a certain range of clearence to maintain oil pressure and noise levels etc. etc.

when you put the rod in, you put a strip of the plastigauge on the crank surface and but the firt bearing colour in. when your trq the rod bolts (or main bolts) down the strip will squish. The width of that strip when you remove the cap (DO NOT SPIN THE CRANK) is measure against a card. that will tell you the clearence between the bearings and the crank surface.

Re: Stupid me, Bad size rod bearings own me.
 

Well good news, No spun bearings. Tomorrow i'm going to honda to order the proper ones.

Rod 1 is #3 Crank says C (Brown)
Rod 2 is #3 Crank says B (Green)
Rod 3 is #2 Crank says B (Yellow)
Rod 4 is #3 Crahk says B (Green)

The thing with cyl 1 is where its stamped C, the C looks double stamped and below the CC there is a small number 2 and its only on that journal, any one know what this means?

Re: Stupid me, Bad size rod bearings own me.
 

its kinda hard to believe you had a knock after just starting it?

i used car quest bearings, without gauging anything on a B18 two times.

they never spun...

Re: Stupid me, Bad size rod bearings own me.
 

Oh very true, I've slapped ACL bearings in engines before and not measure anything and turn out just fine. But if its something you plan on keeping for awhile, or you have just swapped cranks/rods etc.. Then I'd definatly suggest the .99 cent plastigauge and the 15minutes it takes spec'n everything out.

Jeff

Re: Stupid me, Bad size rod bearings own me.
 

i love plasti,cheap easy and very effective. i used it on the ford contour motor i was rebuilding in class took me all of 10 minutes.

Re: Stupid me, Bad size rod bearings own me.
 

well the thing is the max service limit is .002, cyl 1 reads .004, 2,3 read .003 and 4 is .002, so at two thousandths over on one, and one thousandth over 2 and 3 I believe it is very possible to get a knock right from the start.

Re: Stupid me, Bad size rod bearings own me(Update)
 

Well today I can say i'm happy, I got the new bearings from honda, plastiguage showed that everything is fine, cranked the sucker up and it ran like ----..2 sensor connectors were messed up, but got it running properly, no ticking other than the valves, I did a valve job, broke the engine in, drove the ---- out of it to 5-6 k a few times and the car runs good, timing is still a bit off but no big deal, i'm happy to say the build is a success.

The setup:

D16Z6
B18 LS rods
Suzuki Vitara pistons
Rebuild block from ground up.

The soon to be setup:

Garrett T3, intercooled tuned with uberdata running 12 psi daily.

Re: Stupid me, Bad size rod bearings own me(update)
 

I DEFINATELY have to agree with accordepicenter on this one. You should ALWAYSE use plastigauge to spec out the each and every single bearing when you do a rebuild. You never know when they can be out of spec. But hey, let it be a learning experience for you, you could have noticed this while it was out on the stand with plastic' but now it's in the car :-\

Re: Stupid me, Bad size rod bearings own me(update)
 

plastiguage is cheap insurance for only $1.98 for a strip at Auto Zone, it's a good idea when ever doing this kind of stuff

Re: Stupid me, Bad size rod bearings own me(update)
 

Yea I've never rebuilt a bottom end but I know better than to just slap some bearings in there... and non-vtec why do your Vitara pistons cause a "ticking" noise?