<VV> Main Bearings

[Travis Bolton]

The crank isn't bad at all.  I expect it to polish out and be pretty close to standard, especially on the mains.  The engine only had 47K on it, but sat for a few years with a blown head gasket, so one of the cylinders got a little corrosion in the piston ring grooves.
   
  Bearings all looked really good, so maybe reuse would be an option, it just didn't "feel" right.
   
  Thanks for the input.
  -Travis

BobHelt at aol.com wrote:
  
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.
_______________________________________________
This message was sent by the VirtualVairs mailing list, all copyrights are the property
of the writer, please attribute properly. For help, mailto:vv-help at corvair.org
This list sponsored by the Corvair Society of America, http://www.corvair.org/
Post messages to: VirtualVairs at corvair.org
Change your options: http://www.vv.corvair.org/mailman/options/virtualvairs 
_______________________________________________