not sure of miles on the motor, car's odometer says 34 wo that means 134.

i run castrol 20w50 in it. i've only had the car 3 years now.

rod bearings looked good, they were oem brand, and the rod nuts were the ribbed, which were not stock for 1984 so i know they were changed.

Tom

 

I'd recommend replacing the pickup tube while you have it all apart. Or at the very least, remove the pickup tube and have it reinforced.

 

could doing this type of surgury be a way of creating a problem where there might not have been any ?


just curious.

 

Pan is back on and cross member back in place and motor mounts mostly snugged up.

Friday I hope to have it button'ed all up and then fire it up.

Any reccomendations on how long I should run it to break in the new rod bearings?

Tom

 

Tom nice Job. If you need any tools or help send me a PM. Hope you are able to make it out to Mid Ohio next weekend.

John

 

well...if the rod bearing is toast....it can't be much bigger of a problem...

in his situation, his rod bearings were still ok. could it create a problem by taking it apart? ....well if u don't put it back all together...yea. or if u don't torq the nuts down all the way....or if u overtorq something and strip it...

see what i'm getting at?

 

In the aviation world, the philosophy of maintenance has evolved from an emphasis on scheduled maintenance (replace parts based on calendar, hours or cycles) to "on condition" meaning fix it when it breaks or is showing signs of deterioration. Obviously, with life-sustaining parts, where failure means danger, they still use scheduled maintenance. But for other stuff, they've found that human interference with something that works fine is just as likely to cause a problem as it is to solve one.

My conclusion based on this is that something like a #2 bearing will do a lot of collateral damage if it fails. Therefore, it's worth doing it, (1) if mileage or abuse supports it, and (2) you KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. The latter point is key. I would not tackle this job without some experienced backup.

 

Trivia, for the record, you want the green ones but I've noticed in recent years that most sellers now have a kit of 2 or maybe 3 differnent colors and there is only one strip of each color in each package. In the old days we bought individual colors (50 cents) and got 3 or 4 strips in each package. bruce

 

Bruce,
I ended up getting a multi size package at Jegs with the green, red, and blue plastigauges. 7 bucks.


John,
I'm already signed up for the NASA Mid Ohio event(for HPDE group4) so that is why I was hustling to get the rod bearings and baffle all done. I'm hoping I can get a sign off / reccomendation to do the August comp school. will see.... I really want to do some racing..

I've tracked the car for two years now and I have no history on the car so everyone kept saying it is cheap insurance to go ahead and replace the rod bearings.

I also plan on swapping out the fuel injectors this weekend too. I think I've got oversized injectors, which is causing it to bog at WOT.(and tailpipe is soot black too)

Tom

 

Well finally got the car back together and oil topped off and it fired right up and no weird sounds so I am hopping that means it was a successful job.

Tomorrow I am going to yank the injectors(green capped) and replace them with another set from and 1983 motor(black capped) in hopes the car runs a little leaner on top. The green injectors I believe were from a turbo or later model and are higher flow and I think that is causing my richness at top end / WOT. We shall see.

I had the injectors running in a ultrasonic cleaner for about an hr yesterday..

Tom

 

I don't think there is any break-in time for rod bearings. But, assuming you put assembly lube on the bearings, maybe you should change the oil. If you just used oil when assembling, then you don't need to do anything.

 

I used assembly lube on the bearings.

Tom

 

I recommend Rod bearing changes on all race cars irrespective of mileage. I have seen too many fail. Rod bearings are the only weak point of these motors under racing conditions so they make sense to replace. I replaced some bearings earlier this year as precaution. Turns out it was smart since #2 was showing lots of copper.

 

Green injecotors are turbo injectors. You may also want to check the fuel pressure regulator. Not sure how well turbo injecotors worn in an NA. It is possible something else may have been adjusted to compensate. I hate you to run lean now as that will cause the heat gasket to pop.

Safest bet is all stock parts. Stock injectors, FPR and stock chip.

 

I replaced the fuel pressure regulator last summer with a brand new one, so I know it is propper pressure. The pump is a stock one.

I also used a ecu in that is stock chip as the ecu that was in the car when I got it was chipped. Also went back to stock size intake plentum. I've been slowly undoing all the so called perf mods because the car just didn't run right and to make the car spec legal I had to yank all that mess.

Tom