How bad can it be?

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pishta

pishta

I know I'm right....
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Not a slant six but a slant 4! Son ran his '98 Camry w/247K 2.2 low on oil (mystery leak, possibly front seal) and created a huge mess for his mechanic....ME! So I told him start looking for another car but in the meantime ill put new rod bearings in it and hope it holds together until he can find another beater. Ive pulled 2 caps so far and #1 looked decent, light scoring on the bearing shells but the journal was clean. #4 was dust: Bearing was paper thin and the journal is scarred enough to catch a fingernail. No way were putting any more money into a crank grind with a motor pull and all the stuff involved as I simply dont have the time for that with his school and job. SO...Im thinking I can dress the #4 journal with some crocus cloth wrapped around the journal and using a shoestring wrapped around it 3-4 times I could manually knock the scratches down in a somewhat uniform manner by just buffing the hell out of it. I know they sold .001 bearings but not sure what they were used for, and probably not for a Toyota! could I possibly buff this thing down to .010 under with that crocus cloth and 20 minutes of pulling those strings? Or just knock the scratches down and send it on STD bearings again? We bought it cheap with a slight rod knock and I replaced these bearings 4 months ago and it ran like a champ until this. I know slants could almost run with no oil pressure but this is a modern motor, much closer tolerances and demands maintenance. What say you all? Getting a crank ground is not an option and I can get this back on the road by Saturday if my crocus cloth buff job is ghetto enough to keep oil pressure.
 
I am a bit dubious about this repair.

I think it might take more like 20 Hours or even 20 days to turn
the crank down .010 by hand. When you are ever done it would
problem look pretty egg shaped.

My .02 = For Free!
 
OR...a crazy thought: get 1 .010 under bearing, chuck it between 2 caps and run a cylinder hone in it until the plasti-gauge reads spec on the very slight undersized buffed journal? My old 82 Mazda manual states "any scratches on bearing journals should be dressed down with a stone..." I guess they dont think much of a small scratch? These scratches are probably small enough to dress down and run STD's
 
320 wet/dry & WD-40, then can follow that up with a scotch bright pad, then follow up with the final crocus cloth for the final polish.

Screenshot_20210415-180436_Gallery.jpg


Plug the oil holes with some high density foam to keep the gray matter out of them while doing this.


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Want to make sure what it really is that you are feeling with your fingernail going across the crank journal.

A lot of times the softer bearing material will transfer to the harder crankshaft, and that softer bearing material will easily polish back off.

That is where the 320 wet/dry with WD-40 works well to remove the softer bearing material, when removed then polish the hard crank.


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pishta said:
OR...a crazy thought: get 1 .010 under bearing, chuck it between 2 caps and run a cylinder hone in it until the plasti-gauge reads spec on the very slight undersized buffed journal? My old 82 Mazda manual states "any scratches on bearing journals should be dressed down with a stone..." I guess they dont think much of a small scratch? These scratches are probably small enough to dress down and run STD's
Click to expand...

This is going to sound whacked, but I have done this dozens of times with success.

Dress the crank and or rod journals with crokus cloth strip.
Take the bearing halfs out of the cap and drag the cap on a good file switching ends every other stroke to help uniformity. (Dragging it toward you matters to stability)
2 strokes or so then flip it around and 2 or so more.
Put the bearing half's back in the cap and stroke that on the file once one way and flip the cap for one more stroke.
(Note that you have bearing crush)
Rinse the cap and bearing off then put it together with the plasti gauge to check.

I used to work at a car lot as the main mechanic, and they sold a bunch of S10’s that used to have rod knocks.
Remember those?
We would take them in for 5-600 and resell them for 3-4k with no rod knocks and good oil pressure.

Fixed a Fiat Sport Spyder the same way and drove it for years until I traded it for a 66 Ranchero.
 
TrailBeast said:
This is going to sound whacked, but I have done this dozens of times with success.

Dress the crank and or rod journals with crokus cloth strip.
Take the bearing halfs out of the cap and drag the cap on a good file switching ends every other stroke to help uniformity. (Dragging it toward you matters to stability)
2 strokes or so then flip it around and 2 or so more.
Put the bearing half's back in the cap and stroke that on the file once one way and flip the cap for one more stroke.
(Note that you have bearing crush)
Rinse the cap and bearing off then put it together with the plasti gauge to check.

I used to work at a car lot as the main mechanic, and they sold a bunch of S10’s that used to have rod knocks.
Remember those?
We would take them in for 5-600 and resell them for 3-4k with no rod knocks and good oil pressure.

Fixed a Fiat Sport Spyder the same way and drove it for years until I traded it for a 66 Ranchero.
Click to expand...

TrailBeast, are you effectively knurling the back sides of the rod bearings to tighten up the oil clearance gap to the crankshaft?


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@TrailBeast

Just wanted to say thanks for the very first youtube video you put up on your youtube channel on how to work on mopar distributors.

Helped me to understand more things before I tore into my latest distributor projects.

Thanks


* * * * *
 
It's done for. Get a 3S-GTE out of an MR2 Turbo and swap it in there. :p

Seriously, you can probably get something adequate done with crocus cloth, at least until you can get something better.
 
You could always try some shim stock on the back side of one/both of the bearings. I broke an oil pump shaft in a Ford 302 engine in the mid 80's and lost all of my oil pressure. Since I was on the Interstate I didn't pull over, and by the time I found the off-ramp she was knocking pretty good. An old mechanic I knew mentioned this, and by God it got me by for another 6 months or so (something like that).
 
Yes, YES! So there is possibly light at the end of the tunnel? Im looking up rod specs to try and understand why #1 bearing (the decent looking one, closest to pump) looks loose in the cap? Im not sure if it spun (tabs are still on bearings) or just wore like that with little oil. None look blue. Will update tonight when I can get back into this. Ive heard of those bearing spacers...
 
I read a quote a long time ago about temporary used car repairs; spun rod bearings, find and make to fit a leather belt or strap after smoothing journal as bet possible. they said it worked, I never tried it, and it made me laugh but I can see how it would work just don't know how long?
 
pishta said:
Yes, YES! So there is possibly light at the end of the tunnel? Im looking up rod specs to try and understand why #1 bearing (the decent looking one, closest to pump) looks loose in the cap? Im not sure if it spun (tabs are still on bearings) or just wore like that with little oil. None look blue. Will update tonight when I can get back into this. Ive heard of those bearing spacers...
Click to expand...

Any pictures of the old bearing inserts you are taking out?

And the crank condition before you polish it?


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moparlvr166 said:
I read a quote a long time ago about temporary used car repairs; spun rod bearings, find and make to fit a leather belt or strap after smoothing journal as bet possible. they said it worked, I never tried it, and it made me laugh but I can see how it would work just don't know how long?
Click to expand...
Possibly, I need to talk to a cousin about a story about it.

Rumor was our Grandpa spun a bearing in Colorado maybe Trail Ridge forever ago. Dropped pan, saved oil and leather belt repair and limped home.
 
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