Alright for now I have oem main bearings on the way, but for my rod bearings I got a set of ACL's with my vitara pistons so I'm going to use those with my scat rods. with Plasti-guage I get right around .001 clearance, now some say that's too tight but it seems ok since the book tells me between .0008-.0013, the crank has yet to be polished but that shouldnt change the clearance at all. Any bottom end tips would be great since this is my first time going in this deep and I'm on my own here.

oh and how do you assemble? do you just torque down or do you use a dial guage to measure bolt strech?

 

if your range is .0008-.0013, and you are getting .001, id say thats perfect.

you can go the extensive way and measure bolt stretch, but im a lazy ---- and just torque mine down. never had an issue with any of the motors ive put together

 

Thats what I was thinking.

when the plasti-guage strip is saying .001, it that it, or do I have to compensate and divide that by 2 for each side of the bearing?

 

you don't have to divide what your seeing is it...just make sure the clearances are in that range! because not checking for bolt stretch you need to be sure of your clearances since hondas are very strict with the right size bearings!

 

Yeah, what do you like to see for clearances on mains in a d16, this is a z6. I talked to a builder today and he say's he likes to see .003 which is about .001 more than the book says. For rod clearance I have .002 when the book says .0018 to .002, Just want to know what kind of clearances do you like to see.

 

I like to see tolerances on the looser end...this way you can load the bearings right away without having to worry too much with spinning a bearing. Just make sure you use a ton of lube on all bearing surfaces once you actually start putting it together. For a quicker response time in building oil pressure, pack the oil pump with petroleum jelly. You won't have to sit cranking the motor for an extended length before you start it up waiting for oil pressure to build. Once it's started, let the engine sit at idle for about 15 minutes after it's warmed up to temperature, then go break in the rings.

 

On the looser end like .003 on main's and .0015 on rods? Another big help would be what do you like to do for ring end gaps? its really hard to find info specially because I dont know If I should be using the books tolerances or what because this motor is going to be taking some major boost and a major beating.

 

By looser I meant somewhere in the middle of the book's specs, but not towards the extreme tight side. As for ring gaps, go with what the book specifies unless you have aftermarket pistons that require a certain brand ring (i.e. CP pistons with CP rings...CP has it's own spec on them due to pistons expansion rate). For vitara's though just go with the oem gap.

 

What color plastiguage do you have i picked up red when i ended up needing to use green package if your confused about your measurment that maybe why

 

no i have the green, I figured what the plastiguage read was the correct gap but it didnt say anywhere either way so I just wanted to make sure.