<VV> Main Bearings

[BobHelt at aol.com]

In a message dated 3/23/2006 10:07:33 PM US Mountain Standard Time,  
kc_corvair at sbcglobal.net writes:

Anyway,  tonight I split the block on my '63 102/PG.  I hadn't planned to, 
but as  I was getting ready to start putting the pistons back on, I noticed the 
crank  wasn't perfect, so I want to get it polished (I don't think it's bad 
enough  for grinding)

I read in the Tech Guide about the  factory using some undersize bearings to 
accomodate for the block halves being  slightly mismatched.  Sure enough, one 
side of mine are all .001.   As I said I don't plan to grind the crank just 
polish.

My question is - what to do?  Clark's doesn't sell  "mismatched" sets 
apparently, and they don't even carry the .001 anymore (I  didn't check other 
suppliers).

Any help or advice  is greatly appreciated.  If you can point me to the info 
somewhere else,  that's cool too.

-Travis



Hi Travis,
I think the answer lies with your crank. How much polishing will be  
required? It's quite possible that polishing will remove enough material that  you can 
go to 2 thou U/S bearings. It might even take a grinding to 10 U/S to  clean 
up the crank. So first check with a crank shop (no pun intended).
 
Another thing...You should check the existing clearances (with plastigage).  
It's possible that you can just reuse the old bearings (if you wanted to).  
Unless there was a problem, bearings don't wear much, depending on  mileage.
 
Nobody sells split bearing sets. Normally you would use the same bearing  
size on both halves. Only the factory did a select fitting. But if you are a  
perfectionist, buy several sets of bearings, each set a different size. Then you  
will have the inventory from which to select the exact  size.