honda motor bearing question

[Keeper1343]

in the next week or so im going to seriously look at my bottom end to see whats causing this noise. My question is, since i don't build engines, is if a rod bearing is going bad ( and hasn't spun yet) can i simply unbolt the rod from underneath the car and replace the bearings and bolt it back up? Or is my crank screwed? or is it not that easy? Im more then comfortable to take the things needed to unbolt the rod. Thats not my problem. Im just not knowledgable enough to know if i can simply swap the bearings and be fine.
Thanks guys

[SovXietday]

You can just swap the bearing and be fine... IF there is no damage to the crank journal. No scratches, no heat damage, etc. If there is anything like that you will need to probably find yourself a new crank. Honestly if you've got rod knock there probably will be damage, but I've been lucky before so you may be too.

Just make sure you retorque the rod bolts correctly when you put them back on. And when you put new bearings in, make sure you oil them up well before. Don't put them in dry.

[Keeper1343]

i know about oiling them. I just have heard alot of people saying that the crank has to be messed up if the bearing is bad

[SovXietday]

It's likely, but not definite. I ran my old CRX completely out of oil, to the point where the engine seized. Took it apart, journals were still in ok shape. Used some Emory cloth to clean them up just a bit and make sure they were good, put new bearings in it. Drove it around for another month before selling it off.

[GmFwd]

Originally Posted by SovXietday

It's likely, but not definite. I ran my old CRX completely out of oil, to the point where the engine seized. Took it apart, journals were still in ok shape. Used some Emory cloth to clean them up just a bit and make sure they were good, put new bearings in it. Drove it around for another month before selling it off.

Yeah I did something similar too.

If the bearing just gets a little sloppy and dosn't spin or get too hot its just a disassemble/replace/assemble type deal.

[Keeper1343]

so just to be clear on this... you did this with the motor still in the car, correct? Just by dropping the pan and girdle? If so, sweet.

SovXietday - Wanna make some extra cash? lol. Im lazy and dont have a garage dammit. Getting too hot for this ****.

[SovXietday]

Yep I did it without removing the engine. Just gotta remove the exhaust, drop the pan, and carefully do the rest of the girdle and bottoms of the rods. Make sure that when you do them you DO NOT let the rods bang off of the journals. If they weren't scratched, they will be if you do that.

And to be honest with you, as much as I'd love to help. I'm WAY too busy right now to even think about taking on someone elses car. I don't even have time for my own.

[Keeper1343]

yea, my problem is that i dont know what a bad journal looks like lol. I guess I have to plastic gauge it as well?

[Vr-4-Life]

You should use plastigauge and good assembily lube.... I told you many times to just do this in my garage.....

btw if it was a bearing issue you would know by now.... if anything its a slightly bent rod...

[Keeper1343]

rich i talked to many people about this problem and they all said it sounds like a bearing. They don't have to go bad fast as hell. They can make noise for a very long time before giving way. Either way... Built motor will be on its way soon enough lol. Then we can take the rest of my engine apart and see exactly what the problem was.

[SovXietday]

Bad journals are easy to spot.

1) They're VERY dark. Look scorched and blueing. A new journal is a clean metal color, a journal after 200K miles is usually a dreary yellow.
2) There are visible scratches that you can catch a fingernail on. Some of these can be emory clothed out, but usually if you can catch a fingernail on it you are SOL.
3) The bearings will usually be very worn. If you can see a good amount of copper on the bearing surface it needs to be replaced. If the bearing is no longer squared on the edges or noticably damaged it also needs to be replaced.

You may get lucky, bearings come with small paint swabs on them from the factory. They usually don't last through a lot of miles though. You can find out what bearing color you need, but not without taking out the entire bottom rotating assembly and looking at the stamped letters and numbers on the rod and upper portion of the crank girdle (the cast portion of the block).

Otherwise you're looking at using plastigauge which isn't hard at all to use you just need to make sure you don't move the crank or the rod when you tighten it down and loosen it. Only problem with plastigauge is that you need to order the bearings first to check to make sure they're right, heh.

**Also make sure to check your crank spacer (that for some reason I can't think of it's name...). Also, after you check it, make sure you put it back in lol.