Technical Bearing prep before install?

Yep

 

GM service Bulletin No.: 00-06-01-012G

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2017/MC-10137601-9999.pdf

Picture of an actual red scotchbrite pad on page 2.
Granted, the reference is primarily about cleaning gasket surfaces using a surface conditioning disk.

"When cleaning engine gasket sealing surfaces and/or cleaning parts from an engine that are to be reused, surface conditioning disks, hand pads, or steel wool (typically constructed of woven fiber, steel or molded bristles) that contain abrasives, such as a high amount of Aluminum Oxide, should NOT be used."

 

I don't scotchbrite my rings either.

 

Works great on my dishes

 

That's good reading

 

Bob Glidden built his motors on his shop floor (he didn't own a engine stand) and I recall a pic of him grinding on a assembled short block with Etta using a vacuum to get the chips....

 

Buddy of mine swears after an engine was re-built in the Coast Guard they would shake a dash of Bon Ami (cleanser) in the carb upon initial fire up! Rings seated immediately and engine ran flawlessly for YEARS!
I never did it........but I believe'm!!!
6sally6

 

Bob didn't really care how long his engines lasted. If they won the next race he was happy.

 

When I build engines I take time to clean the backs of the bearing shells with a little lacquer thinner. I also clean the area the bearing snaps into with lacquer thinner. Put the bearings in place and liberally oil them with the oil the engine is going to use. I leave the coating alone. I also run the engine over with the starter with the spark plugs out until I get oil pressure. This process also helps to fill the carb. On the race car we had to push it with the plugs out since it didn't have a starter. Put the plugs in and fire it up. We broke the race engines in by racing them.

The race cars had solid roller lifters so there wasn't any cam break in. I use molly paste on new flat tappet cams and go through the recommended cam/lifter break in. It's been working for me for a long time.

 

The paper holds up?

 

Wipe 'em clean and install with Bearing guard, STP, moly lube or whatever thick oil you have around. Never, never, never, ever use white grease as an assembly lube, it will just clog your oil passages if it sits for any length of time. I'm at well over a thousand engines assembled with several at over 250k miles. Works well for me.

 

Not that my opinion or practice matters to anyone but me, or maybe not even correct. But, I'm in the clean and oil camp. I've lost count a long time ago, can't even guess how many went together that way.

I lost one rod bearing in a 455 Olds, but I think I failed to clean the machining grindings out of a crank passage.

 

QUOTE="6sally6, post: 14120501, member: 243551"]Buddy of mine swears after an engine was re-built in the Coast Guard they would shake a dash of Bon Ami (cleanser) in the carb upon initial fire up! Rings seated immediately and engine ran flawlessly for YEARS!
I never did it........but I believe'm!!!
6sally6[/QUOTE]

Worked with a guy years ago who had spent about 3 yes as a zone service mgr for Chrysler. He said they had a significant number of oil burners in the mid to last half of the 70's. First step on a customer complaint of oil use was to take the car out and run it up to 75-85 mph and then yank it down into 2nd gear to decelerate. Repeat 3 or 4 more times.

On a return complaint of still burning oil, the Bon Ami came out. Hell of a corporate sponsored repair on a new car IMO.

 

I’ll have to search tonight on my laptop at work, but I “think” I recall Mahle-Clevite talking about removing plastigauge with a “solvent, such as brakekleen”. I could be totally wrong, so I’ll post back one way or another in a few hours.

 

Worked with a guy years ago who had spent about 3 yes as a zone service mgr for Chrysler. He said they had a significant number of oil burners in the mid to last half of the 70's. First step on a customer complaint of oil use was to take the car out and run it up to 75-85 mph and then yank it down into 2nd gear to decelerate. Repeat 3 or 4 more times.

On a return complaint of still burning oil, the Bon Ami came out. Hell of a corporate sponsored repair on a new car IMO.[/QUOTE]
I have a friend who worked for IH in the 70’s and they overhauled a tractor and could not get the rings to seat. The zone manager told them to get the tractor set up on a PTO dyno, work it HARD, and sprinkle in BonAmi. It worked. I have a suspicion that corporate never knew about that little trick.

 

There's been some threads here before about Bon-Ami and glazed cylinders or ring seating problems. Supposedly Caterpiller even had a part # for it

 

How did this thread go from bearing's to ring's???

 

That whole BonAmi thing was related to cylinders/ rings that weren't very round, and also old-style chrome rings that were very hard and didn't seal well without a little wear. A good modern bore/hone with torque plates and modern rings usually results in almost instantaneous ring seal- and also allows the use of very thin, low drag ringsets

 

Plasti-gage has always been a pain to remove off either surface for me. I don’t remember yrs ago what I did but recently brake clean and a microfiber towel seem to be the best for me. Not doing as many engines as I once did..

 

"Ideally you should remove the PLASTIGAUGE stripe with a clean oily cloth or industrial de-greasing solvent, but users may be assured that any PLASTIGAUGE left behind is oil soluble and cannot harm the engine in any way."

 

All it takes is just a remote suggestion. We beat the bearing deal to death now it's time to start on rings . No matter what, it's still fun. LOL.

 

So if the Bon Ami works so well for seating the rings, shouldn't we sprinkle some on the bearings before assembly so they can seat in quickly too ?

 

^^^^JUST KIDDIN GUYS^^^^ I heard the Bon Ami does work
I think the main thing is that there are a lot of ways to assemble the bearings and not harm them. Often the coatings applied to newer bearings is so thin that I would probably soak them in some kerosene and blow them off with dry air. You can get some of that canned air like you use to blow crap out of your keyboard if your normal compressed air is suspect. Then either assembly lube or oil and good to go. That way you have less chance of embedding anything into the bearing or wiping a thin coating off.

 

This is good to know

 

Cant be any worse than using Scotchbrite.

 

It seems things go wrong when people are hung up on perfection, the last big block I put together broke rod bolts and destroyed two rods and the crank. I pulled the crank out of another 400 and put it and two used rods and pistons back in with new bearings and rod bolts, rings etc. ball honed the block and away it goes…according to some it should blow up. Instead I’m putting it in My convertible sometime.

 

Lol,,,,,yeah some tend to get hung up on the clean room assembly method .
Just do good cleaning,,,good assembly work,,,,,good parts .
The rest will take care of itself usually .

Tommy

 

That’s what I used also back when I building a lot of engines.... but it was the only place I used STP. If you get that stuff on your hands , it’s real hard to get it off! I figured it would stick to the bearings, like it did to my hands. Sometimes, my engines may set for a spell before starting.









Bones

 

After watching some Youtube videos of engine rebuilds in 3rd world countries I have come to the conclusion what we do is akin to rocket science vs. most of the world.

 

If you don't turn the engine when using the drill there is a good chance not all of the rod bearings saw oil.