Rod end play?

Jon

Jon

Senior Member
Removed my oil pan to change the gasket and check the bearing clearances. Noticed there is a lot of play in rod bearings side to side. I measured, .015", .020", .022", .022". Car ran good, no noises. Are these bad enough that I should fix or can I run without any problems? I have yet to check bearing clearances, need to go to a meeting tonight so had to stop looking. I also found a piece of babbit in the oil pan. Haven't found where that came from yet.
From what the previous owner told me it has about 35,000 miles since rebuild. I've put the last 22,600 on it, average 2,500 per year.
 
If you're talking about Lateral movement, yes it is suppose to have that. I don't know the specs, but i know the rod is suppose to move back and forth on the crank to help oil flow.
 
You may be able to tighten the rods up by taking the shims out. If not, bite the bullet and do a rebuild.

Mike
 
The end play is a little excessive but if it isn't making any noise, I wouldn't worry about it. Doesn't sound broke to me.
 
The piece of babbit may just be a piece of flash from the last babbit job. Get some plastiguage and check the clearances of the mains and rods. They should all be 1-1/2 thousants. Many engines get rebabbited unnessarily.
 
--From service bulletin page 218

Top of rod (piston) .040

At crankshaft --.008-.012

If there are no noises and that is the only problem I wouldn't worry.
 
Kurt is correct about the clearance limits. I would inspect the bearings closely when clearancing them for damage. I just rebuilt one that looked good from below with the caps secure but #2 babbitt was destroyed in the rod and cap after removing the cap and inspecting. I checked this after finding slivers of babbitt in the pan.
 
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