Engine bearings

Posted by Bob Carabbio on November 23, 1996 at 21:08:24

For those who might have tried this, how did you make out?
The engine in my A was rebuilt with new babbit in '72 (according to the stamps on the bottom of the engine). It wasn't a thrilling job - no oil grooves in the lower half and limited grooving on the top. The engine was assembled with shims made out of tin can material, and actually had the dippers on three of the rods on backwards. Mercifully (probably) it was never run much, and was mostly left outside alone to rust until I disasembled it this year. Basically the babbit is all good, and the crankshaft is a perfect 0.030 under on the mains and 0.020 on the con rod journals. There is some rust pitting damage to the journals on the crank. I polished up the journals with garnet paper, and they're about 95% good looking, but they are pitted enough to feel manually in the damaged areas. The cylinders will be O.K. with a hone job.
The question is:
Can I get away in the short term by just re-assembling and adjusting the bearings, or is it likely with the light pitting I have that the babbit will just "go away" rapidly and catastrophically?
Is there any way to affect a repair with out a crank re-grind and re-babbiting job (i.e. plating the crank and re-grinding back to 0.030)?
In the long term I intend to install an inserted engine, but not to begin with if possible.

Follow Ups:
Re: Engine bearings Furtado's Auto Machine December 03, 1996 at 22:58:00(0)
Re: Engine bearings Marith McCoul November 25, 1996 at 14:38:38(1)
Re: Engine bearings Bob Carabbio November 27, 1996 at 22:38:03(0)

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