what is the current cost of babbit?

mike657894

mike657894

Well-known member
I have no shims in my mains and .002 on the mains with a stock sized crank. I expect I will need a rebuild at some point. 3 questions. At what measurement will I want or need to be rebabbited? How many miles will this .002 babbitt last under normal wear? And how much does a rebabbit and line bore cost. This would be a disassembled cleaned engine with a light oil on it. I know just handing someone your engine or whole car will drive up the cost.
 
Mains poured and line bored to your crankshaft out here is 700 bucks,you give them a bare block with main caps and crank,it comes back with fresh babbit cut for your crank,you need to fit it correctly.Bearing adjustment should be done every 10k or so.You can sand your main caps to gain a thousandth or two and make a bearing work.A lot of it has to do with how you run your car,keep the timing right and the rpms up your mains will last longer than if you lug it and allow spark knock.
 
Where your located will make a difference. So give us your location so you can get an accurate number from some one in your area.
 
If your babbitt still has some thickness you can carefully file the caps to get the clearance you want. .002" isn't all that bad.
 
If yours is not numbers matching, maybe you can start to look for a good block and have it done ahead of time to minimize down time.
 
0.002" clearance on the main bearings is good to go. Use synthetic oil to get the maximum life out of your engine.


You need to be more concerned about the thrust clearance of the crankshaft in the existing bearings. If the crankshaft can move fore-aft in the bearings more than 0.010", the rear main bearing will take a beating each time you release the clutch.


In the event you opt to have new bearings, I strongly suggest you consider having insert main bearings instead of poured babbitt bearings.
 
I did get it bored for new pistons and checked everything out don't remember my end play number. But found it to be acceptable I remember the feel with it on the table was good.



I like babbitt and have developed a personal relationship with the babbit in my car. haha. I Thought about having it inserted when I did the bore, as I had a cracked rear main cap. But I found a replacement cap to have it inserted or babbited. Well it was a 10 under crank cap I have a stock crank. My father produced a bearing scrapper out of a drawer. interesting tool I found it removed .00005 per scrape. Or took about 20 scrapes to remove a .001 if my math is correct. I set to marking the babbit and trying to place it on crank and turning removing a touch of marking dye. thats where i cut and remarked and refit. It took about 6 hours. With platicgauge being used tin the final hour. Im about 200 miles on the hand worked bearing and it was my first try. The mention of it to the machinest twisted his face around. hopefully he is not right. I kept checking how flat my cut was by lapping it with a bar of 1.5in mounted in a lathe. If it lapped near instantly it was near flat. Which it did. I was just doing it to see if it worked and if it didn't i would have went insert. And if it were to fail now I would blame my handy work not the Babbitt.



On getting a spare. I missed out on a pair of unknown condition engines for 400 but with cleanish looking paint on them. If the out side reflected the inside they were a steal. I kinda think getting a spare engine is manifesting a failure. And if I had one for every car truck and bike I would need a shed dedicated to spare engines. The A may get a spare to sit some time cause I see deals some times but not all the time.
 
Filing the caps makes scrapping the babbitts round a must do. I did mine with a pen knife and lots of Dykum Blue. Mike, you are doing it right.
 
The guys out here are real picky about temperature control,babbit temp,cap temp and solder temp is critical for proper adherence.They use temp guns all through the process.
 
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