replacing engine bearing on H

Recently picked up an H that has an engine knock. It runs fine, but I believe it blew an engine bearing from being run with little/bad oil. Take a look at the pictures, what does it look like to you? How bad? anything else look real bad?

If it is in fact the bearing, how hard would this be to replace? Could I do it from underneath with just the oil pan removed? I am mechanically inclined, but am definitely not a mechanic. Any comment and suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

From what I see in the pictures, the crank needs to come out and be ground undersize.

From what I see in the pictures, the crank needs to come out and be ground undersize. Get that rod reconditioned too and have the rest checked.

All that discoloration would lead me the think you have more of a problem than a "worn" bearing. Looks like you might need a crank turned, because you could have some scoring on the crank. Taking rod cap off is the only way to find the asnwer to that question, though.
Jim

Thanks for the help, not what i wanted to hear but kind of what i was expecting. So I need an honest answer. How bad is this? The tractor was running, and was doing fine besides the knock. What am I looking at for the amount of time to tear this all down, and cost of new/reconditioning parts??? any ballpark estimates?

Just want to get a handle on what i am going to be getting myself into, because right now the H is sitting in a field. Thanks again!

Looks like either an oil starvation problem, or someone just built it and got the rod beaing set too tight. Looks like a large piece of bearing material is working its way out. Either way, engine has to come out and regrind with new bearings, resize the rods. That one has probably spun.

is that guy from jasper engine co.?

Chances are very high that you'll need to turn the crank and resize the rod. Once they spin a bearing, unless you have them resized they won't hold a new bearing in place most of the time. The rod journal is most likely scored badly and has bearing material fused to. The bearing material can be scraped off but the journal will still be kaput.

Not going to know for sure until you get that piston out of the bore and a set of mics on the crank and a bore gauge in the rod.

You can either pony up and repair it correctly or put it back together with a new bearing and ride her with a puckered butt for the rest of the time you own her waiting for it to go splat.

I had a machine shop do mine last year for about $1,500. Got the works, head checked, worked and shaved, valve job, block boiled, checked and planed the deck, new sleeves pistons, crankshaft turned, new ring gear on the flywheel, new engine and rod bearings, and the labor.

The problem you may have is if you just fix the bottom of the engine, (i.e, the pistons, rods, and bearings), the top of the engine, (the head), may be in need of attention too. Often a newly built bottom or top of engine magnifies problems in the other half that wasn't rebuilt. So you'd hate to sink $500 in it, then have something else go wrong again that would require going back into the motor.

If you're mechanically inclined, and enjoy working on things and have some time and space, you should do this, mostly yourself. These are some of the easiest motors to work on ever built. You'll end up being a tractor enthusiast. But if time is a factor and you want someone else to do it, you should be able to get the bottom fixed for under $1,000, and the whole motor worked and nice for under $2,000. Do most if it yourself, $800-$1,000.

Is that a piece of bearing material hanging out the side of rod cap? Never seen one do that.

I suspect there's about a 99.9% chance the bearing journal on the crank is scored and will have to be re-ground undersize. If its been reground before, or the damage is too deep, there may not be enough material left and you'll end up having to replace the crank. As someone else noted, have the machine shop check the connecting rod as well - it probably got beat around a lot & may have to be re-bored or replaced.

In order to grind the crank, it'll have to come out of the engine, which I believe means pulling the engine out of the tractor. Once you've got the crank out, go ahead and replace all the bearings. If it did in fact spin the bearing due to a lack of oil, there's a good chance that other bearings are damaged as well. Bearings are cheap; the cost of grinding the crank and a new set of rod & main bearings is small compared to the cost of having to do it again when another bearing fails.

Of course, now that you've got it down that far, you might as well do a complete overhaul...

Pull the rod cap off & post a picture of the crank journal - be interesting to see how much damage it did.

How much it'll cost you is a function of how much work you can do yourself and how far you want to go. The absolute minimum you'll need to do is bearings & re-grinding the crank, which shouldn't be more than a couple hundred dollars if you take the engine apart and re-assemble it yourself. Once you have the crank out, don't forget to replace the front & rear main seals. Nothing worse than putting an engine back together & having to take it all apart again to fix a leak.

If you just want something that runs, it might be easier to see if you can scrounge another running engine & just do a swap...

Keith

I recently restored a Super H with the same problem, spun rod bearing. Some shade tree mechanic had installed new pistons, sleeves, rod bearings. He put .004 bearings on a standard crank. You can tell by the oil being burnt away that is has been run a little to long. I guarantee that the crank is ungrindable. You can have it built up by welding then grinding but that is spendy. An good H crank is easy to find. I bought one from Wengers completely rebuilt with new bearings included for around $350. The rod is junk to. Find a used one and have it reconditioned with the other ones and you will be good to go. By the way find out what caused the oil starvation problem in the first place so it does not happen again.