Advice for rod bearing replacement. (Long)

[Peter Serwe]

Ben Fenner wrote:

<snippety-snip-snip>

> "ghetto engine overhaul" method in where the two oil pans are removed,

Ha, first off it's not the 'ghetto engine overhaul', it's the
'Senior LM-approved rod bearing replacement procedure'.

A couple of notes about the rod bearing replacement.

1.  If you don't have one, buy an FSM first. It even tells
you exactly how to seal your upper oil pan, which I did
mostly correctly, I just screwed up the tiniest corner
near the transaxle bellhousing.  @#*&$(#*&%(*&!

2.  DO NOT under ANY circumstances do this on a jack.
You will be under there for quite a while, and a jack
isn't safe.  I myself am *much* more carefull about
this than perhaps is necessary, because I've seen cars
fall/slide off jacks.  I did mine on jackstands, but
ramps would do just as well.  Please, I want to see your
posts around for a while :)

3.  Do not attempt to pry off the upper oil pan with
the two engine-to-transaxle bolts until you've removed
the little cover, and removed the tiny 10mm head nuts
just inside the little tiny cover.  Those little nuts attach
your rear main seal retainer to your upper pan, when
you try to pry off the pan the way your supposed to,
those little tiny nuts hold it on and snap your very fragile
rear main seal retainer.

4.  Do not, under any circumstances pry at the pan with a
putty knife.  Scratching those surfaces sucks, and HARD.

5.  Kojima-san reiterated to me after I argued about it
fearfully that you read the bearing grades off the crank
0,1,2 and replace them with the next grade tighter.

I believe, but probably don't recall correctly, my crank
was stamped with something like 1112, I put in the next
tighter grade, 0001.  Plastigauge confirmed the tolerances
at 1/10th of a thousandth, smack in the middle for the
SR20 rod bearings.

6.  Do a better job of sealing your upper pan than I did.
Mine still leaks, and I haven't felt like doing anything
more exciting than adding extra oil when I have to.  One
of these days, I'm going to have to drop the crossmember
and do it over.  Doesn't take that long, but I've had too
much else to do for a while.  The real beeyatch is getting
every piece of the gasket surface perfectly clean.

7.   Torque everything as perfectly as possible, following
the torque order specified in the FSM - it really matters.

<***NOTE TO LM's***>
Anyone know of a solvent that ultra-black/grey type stuff
hates?  Gasoline, tourmaline, turpentine, all did something,
but it still takes forever.
</***NOTE TO LM's***>

--
Peter Serwe <peter@easytree.net>
Cheaper, Faster, Better, pick any two.