|
60Pete, I think GMAN is giving you the straight skinny on the rod bearings. The journals don't wear evenly -- they may have gotten oblong-- so a plastigage measurement you do from the access panel may not be accurate. You could go with "fatter" rod bearings based on the plastic measurement, but you might cause more problems than you've fixed. I think the perfecto way to do it is to pull the crank and have the rods and the main journals redone -- after first making sure you can find new, thicker bearings to fit the redone, slimmer journals. For a lot of years, I was on a clip of building 5 to 8 engines every winter. The school of engine building I went to said that loose bearings make more power. But then we were only building short blocks to last for few thousand miles or so. GMAN has given you a better ideas on how to rebuild it so it lasts. The other thought I can add is that in my experience, you should never, ever, never reuse rod bolts -- as they stretch, and can't be relied upon a for a 2nd go round. Main bolts, on the other hand, will generally outlast us and our kids. You've said you have good oil pressure, so things can't be terrible in there -- but if you're sure it's not the flywheel, and feel the need to do something, pull the rod bearings and layer the undersides with a sheet or two of aluminium foil as a shim. Then use new rod bolts. Or, probably better, don't shim and only stick in new rod bolts then torque them down to spec (assuming you've looked at the bearings, and they're clean). Those cheap and quick fixes are the kind of thing I've had to do a few times at night - (before I really got the hang of building engines) - upside down with a lantern for light so I'd be patched together to run a 100 miles in the morning. For a long term; good fix, I'd go the route GMAN recommends. I'm guessing from your name that you have a JD 60. I've got one too -- a '54 row crop -- so I'm on your side in hoping it keeps running well. best of luck Steve
|
