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I did find some shimming stock and it should ship out tomorrow. Barring anything crazy, that should take care of the mains. I'm not going to play with them any more after putting this one up because the engine has good oil pressure and the bearing i pulled look good. I'll check another and plastigauge it but i won't remove the bearing shell from the cap and disturb any shimming.

The rods, i may do a whole set if i can find them in stock after determining what size i need. I really want to get the car to the warren show in two weeks, so what's in stock will really decide for me.

I'll be happy to send you some bearings gratis, but I am awfully doubting I have any .030s. Try and get that crankpin measurement sometime today. I have plenty of extra rods too if you need one.

Shimming can get real tricky. it's a case of hand fitting each seperate case, condition and situation and requires good judgement calls based on each different situation.

If u can get bearings to fit without shimming then get hte bearings.

The problem here is that we do not know why the bearings were shimmed in the first place. There are 2 different methods of shimming. Shims between rod cap and rod mating surface. And then shims as u have ppictured where the shim is between the cap and the bearing shell.

What happens is that at some point in time the caps may have been filed at the cap-to-rod or main cap-to-engine block mating surface to tighten up the bearings due to wear and due to the mechanic at the time of filing did not want to buy new bearings or could not get bearings or for any other number of possible reasons good or bad. Maybe the engine was built up using miscellaneous rod or main caps.

There is any number of variuos conditions and situations that may have promted the shimming.

If u can get new or used bearings to fit up good get the bearings. Otherwise the shimming/filing becomes strictly a hand-fitting process.

Shimming is an old trick that was mostly used on POURED main bearings and then carried over into insert type bearings. There is also a possibility that the mains and/or rods were bored out to accept some NON-Packard insert bearings.

If the shimming was done to account for main bearing wear, then i'll definitely just put a new bearing in. If the shimming was done because of some sort of cap out of round or similar issue, well, then i guess shim time.

I'm thinking that if i find what size bearings i need and put them in, then i'll likely be fine when i measure with plastigauge. If i can't come up with the clearance i need, well, then the old bearing and new shim stock is still here.

I measured the clean rod journal on the crank today several times with some decent digital calipers, came out 2.2495 sometimes, and 2.250 sometimes. I'm sure it's probably 2.250 and some of it was me wiggling the calipers some trying to reach my arms up in there throw it off .0001.

That'd be standard, correct?

All of these bearings have FM on them somewhere and have federal mogul part numbers, and i see PC on them too, mains and rods.

I wonder if PC is for Packard Corp? I know FM made them for them, and if these are standard bearings they might be original bearings, and maybe someone shimmed the mains to get more life instead of all new at some point.


Sadly, the crank as grooves you can feel very lightly running around that rod journal. How bad it would affect things, i don't know. I think that hole is getting oil now, even if it wasn't in the past. What i don't know is what kind of life i'm going to get putting that bearing in.

To do anything with the crank would mean dropping it, and that means taking that damn motor out. I'm thinking i'm going to put a rod bearing in, check clearances, and button her up. If she makes it the season, great. If not, well, then i'll have to park her until i can afford a rebuild, or at least afford to yank the motor and have it ground.

It seems kind of unprofessional, but is it ok to just grind that one journal undersize and put the correct bearing in and leave the rest STD if it comes to tearing the motor down?

Hate to have all that crank work done when it seems to be just one journal.

If that ONE rod journal is all that is bad then continue with your plan to fix just that one rod journal. Absolutely nothing wrong whatsoever with that plan.

Just try real hard to polish out the journal with some crokus cloth. Be sure to plug the oil hole to keep grit from entering.

I believe your plan as u describe in previous post is a good one. Rock'n Roll.

"It seems kind of unprofessional, but is it ok to just grind that one journal undersize and put the correct bearing in and leave the rest STD if it comes to tearing the motor down?"

YES!! ABSOLUTELY. Go look up the word "professional" that always seems to get tossed around this web site alot. Basicly it is someone who does something for MONEY! It does not imply they really know what they're doing.

Much of the machining work that is done on engines is completely unnecessary. I've had one hell of a time over the years with cylinder heads. If i take one to automotive machine shop for guide resizing or grinding because they are so bad i have to be very emphatic that i want ONLY the work done that i have requested and NO OTHER work done. On a few occasions some shops will try to push a lot of unnecessary machine work such as milling the head and sneak it in. Then whein i walk into to get the head they say "oh, by the way..." and extra bucks.

So much of this so-called 'professionalism' is just building time and padding the bill for work not needed. If u work in a new car dealership or any automotive dealership then u are aware of "writeing up time". Same difference.

I've got a 2.0 ranger currently in my possesion with hand polished rods and mains (NEVER Ground since factory) at 150K ruff miles. It now has 180K miles. I have another one down rite now. Several out there running over the years with little or no problems. Some that had only one or two journals professionaly ground because they were too bad to polish out.

The journal does not have to polish out to perfection. Just do the best u can with it. I can't see it. Maybe really does need to be ground. It is a judgement call not ez to make without direct inspection.

Give your plan a try.

The only other propblem u will run into is trying to find a store that will sell u just ONE rod bearing pair. Everyone now wants to sell a god damned set or 'kit' for everything.

I went over today to buy 2wo pistons and could only find one store (advance auto parts) that would sell me just two. But i have to wait a week for them. Not a problem. And they were cheaper (each) than a set (each).

When u fit up the new (OR GOOD USED) bearing then try to error on the loose side (WITHIN SPEC) rather than the tite side if u have any option. I don;t have the specs for this engine but general rule of thumb across most all engines is 0.0007 to 0.0027 clearence. That higher limit would be considered rather high for a new engine with everything under ideal conditions. But is very acceptable for a continued service limit.

Maybe ROss can advise u better since he has set up these particular engines and mite know some special considereations due to PMCC metalurgy or production variations that i'm not aware of.

Actually, professional has a real meaning for an occupation that requires a board certification. For example: beautician, embalmer, attorney, accountant, physician, etc. The term is thrown about without knowing what its real meaning is. It has joined the lexicon of roadster and other terms that are used and abused in current speak.

Another one of my favorite misused terms is momentarily. For example: We will be landing momentarily. This literally means we will be landing for only a brief period of time. The correct way to state this upcoming event would be to say: We will be landing in a moment.

(o{I}o)

The spoiler is back, sorry. Professional has little or no meaning in endeavors that require board certification. The term that does have meaning is "licensed". The word professional is often redundant as in Licensed Professional Beautician means the same as Licensed Beautician.

In general "professional" means that is how a person makes their livlihood. In general a professional mechanic makes his/her living working on cars, an amateur does it for himself

See definition below

Definition of PROFESSIONAL
1a : of, relating to, or characteristic of a profession b : engaged in one of the learned professions c (1) : characterized by or conforming to the technical or ethical standards of a profession (2) : exhibiting a courteous, conscientious, and generally businesslike manner in the workplace
2a : participating for gain or livelihood in an activity or field of endeavor often engaged in by amateurs <a professional golfer> b : having a particular profession as a permanent career <a professional soldier> c : engaged in by persons receiving financial return <professional football>
3: following a line of conduct as though it were a profession <a professional patriot>