Crankshaft bearing caps

[Jim Yergin]

The engine I recently purchased was already disassembled. It appears that whom ever disassembled the engine did not mark the 2nd and 3rd crankshaft bearing caps so that they could go back in their original places. My factory parts book lists the same part numbers for these caps so I guess looking for different parts numbers on the caps themselves won't work. Is there any way to determine the correct location of each of the caps?

Thanks.

Jim Yergin

[james curl]

You could take the main caps and the block to a machine shop and have the mains line bored. They take some off of the caps and resize the mains to the original size. After line boring mark the caps in their correct order.

[Jim Yergin]

Thanks James. I was hoping to avoid having to do that but it may come down to just that. I guess I was hoping that at a minimum there was a way to measure the caps installed in both possible locations and thereby determine the correct placement.

Jim Yergin

[grey beard]

Jim,

With two iedentical center caps you have only two possiblilites. I would drop the crank into the upper halves and install the two center caps with long pieces of plastigauge and then compare the two readings. If they both look happy, mark one so you know which is front. If they look lousy, try a swap. This should be easy to figure our without expensive line boring.

Of course, the first consideration before rebuilding any engine is to check for cylinder wall taper in the block. If the block needs to be bored, it will also need other machine work, like cam bearings, etc. That would be the perfect time to get the main caps straifghtened out. Maybe your local machinist could help tell which one went where using a telescoping bore gauge. They do this stuff all the time.

JMHO:)

Good Luck

[Jim Yergin]

Thanks grey beard. Today I spoke to my machinist who has the block and I am taking the caps to him tomorrow so that he can do just as you suggested. I am hoping that he can identify the correct locations and that the block is in good enough shape that I can avoid the additional line bore. But will just have to wait and see.

Jim Yergin

[Chester Brzostowski]

Jim,

I would like to stay on top of your progress in that I have a 230 sitting in the porch that I would also like to rebuild. If your machine shop guy works out let him know that you have a friend with a 230 who also needs some work also. Is he in Warrenton or closer to Dulles. My Son-in-law uses someone on Rt 28.???

Chet...

[Jim Yergin]

Chet,

He is located on Rt. 29/15 in Opal near the Rt. 17 intersection. I will let you know how it works out.

Jim

[Don Coatney]

The engine I recently purchased was already disassembled. It appears that whom ever disassembled the engine did not mark the 2nd and 3rd crankshaft bearing caps so that they could go back in their original places. My factory parts book lists the same part numbers for these caps so I guess looking for different parts numbers on the caps themselves won't work. Is there any way to determine the correct location of each of the caps?

Thanks.

Jim Yergin

Jim;

Most every engine I have disassembled has a factory mark on all bearing caps. Some are hard to find. Are you sure there is no bearing cap marks?

[Young Ed]

The 3-4 218s I've done with dad he's always had me mark the 2nd and 3rd caps as he says they are not factory marked. 2 dings with a center punch on both cap and block marks them direction and location wise. repeat with 3 dings for #3

[Jim Yergin]

Don,

I went over both of them with a magnifying glass and could not find any marks.

Jim Yergin

[Jim Yergin]

Don, it turns out you were correct. I just spoke to my machinist and he was able to find a tiny #2 marked on the corner of one of the caps and a mark that looked like someone tried to put a #3 on the other. For the life of me I could not see them but he is confident that they can now be placed in the correct locations and he has marked them all clearly.

The other good news he had is that the block, head and crank all checked out OK. He is going to square the deck and mill the head. He has already polished the crank. The cylinder bores are in good shape and we agreed to bore them out 0.10 over. Now I just have to get him the pistons I will use so he can do the boring. So far so good.

Jim Yergin

[Don Coatney]

Jim;

Glad it worked out and your engine is in pretty good shape.