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Replacing Main\Rod bearings?

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Old 05-21-2010, 04:35 AM
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Exclamation Replacing Main\Rod bearings?

Will be pulling the motor out soon,bad lifter,low oil pressure. It's 00 ls1 shortblock,read the 99 and 00 engines had problems with the oil pump.Was just going to replace the pump and lifters,but was wondering if I should replace the main\rod bearings without polishing or turning the crank.Thoughts?
Old 05-21-2010, 05:51 AM
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Or, you could just take the money you'd spend on that and burn it.
Old 05-21-2010, 08:03 AM
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If you arent gonna have the proper machine work done for the bearing replace then might as well leave whats in there alone IMO.
Old 05-21-2010, 09:37 AM
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I was trying to make that point, although before coffee that's difficult to do.

Without machining and precision clearance measuring, new bearings are at best wasted money. At worst, you'll destroy the engine.

I'd cut open the oil filter that was on the engine at the time, spread out the filter material, and look for metal flakes. Any visible metal flakes, it's time for a rebuild.

If you shut down the engine before any damage was done, just replace the lifters and pump as you described and button it back up.
Old 05-21-2010, 02:01 PM
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To replace the bearings does one always have to do machine work?I understand if a rod bearing or a main bearing went bad then pretty sure crank,and rods should be taken to a machine shop.Anyone ever just replaced the bearings without machine work?
Old 05-21-2010, 02:08 PM
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Originally Posted by RobZ
To replace the bearings does one always have to do machine work?I understand if a rod bearing or a main bearing went bad then pretty sure crank,and rods should be taken to a machine shop.Anyone ever just replaced the bearings without machine work?
I'm sure you can, but at the very least verify that the bearing clearances are acceptable with the new bearings. It could be very costly to make that mistake.
Old 05-21-2010, 03:52 PM
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Originally Posted by RobZ
To replace the bearings does one always have to do machine work?I understand if a rod bearing or a main bearing went bad then pretty sure crank,and rods should be taken to a machine shop.Anyone ever just replaced the bearings without machine work?
Not always, just when precision micrometer measurement of every single main and rod surface shows they're within tolerance specs.

That doesn't happen very often...usually there will be one or more that don't check out.

What I see guys doing is not mic'ing their crank, just tossing in new factory spec bearings and reassembling the engine without even taking new clearance measurements. Very very very bad move.



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