The1's Daily

[vlad01]

yeh feels fine running your finger over the crank surface, photo up close a polish would smooth all that out i guess and get it balanced while it's out? Im not planning on reving it, but would help with longevity?

you will need to fix the oil issue with that block first. it might spin the bearings again. its the galleries between the cam and mains. They are hit and miss and sometimes are blocked by the cam bearing itself starving the mains and big ends. The only way to fix it is drilling those galleries out to a larger size in order to make more room going around the cam bearing.

[immortality]

I have heard a few stories about ecotec/L67 cranks failing after been ground undersize. If it's to bad, better of finding another crank from an ecotec.

If you stuck for a rod/piston, I think the user Decicrate on the JC forum may have one or two floating around.

You can probably get that sump welded up as well if you want the extra oil capacity.

I am thinking thats actually got to do with removing the factory hardening when regrinding them. they have tons of meat for regrinding. the journals in the 3.8 are one of biggest in all automotive engines. 60.3mm

If they are reground they should be nitrided as far as I understand, also who know if they are radiusing the journals properly either?

other alternative is to buy new ones from GM in the states. I found a price at 400 or so USD. shipping will be a killer though. There is no new genuine cranks left in oz.

That may be, but still a few broken cranks. I think the issue isn't the size of the journals but the fact that they are off set. I know MACE had a fair few NOS cranks and he sold out fairly quickly.

[trikky73]

yeah I was one of the lucky ones to get a crank off MACE
Come to think of it I will have a look to see if I still have my old crank might be in better nick

[vlad01]

yeah I was looking at getting one too. but when my mate gave me his dead VY engine. all the bearings and journals were near perfect despite 350k of abusive use. I am keeping this one as my build block as its a cherry pick. Suffered from none of the problems. bearings and crank immaculate, coolant always changed and zero corrosion anywhere, no crack in the head, never overheated.

I do have another VT engine thats good but was ran on water and has corrosion throughout. mechanically its very good though.

[The1]

ill pull the crank and take it into a machine shop in town and see if it'l polish out otherwise ill go looking for another crank, find a shop that can balance it all, with flexplate and balancer? Ill check the cam bearings which would decide if the block goes into a machine shop to redo bores for new rings and cam bearings?

So far ive pulled the fuel rails off, injectors, rocker covers, TB and elbow and headers, getting way to hot in my garage, 38c at 10.30am, predicted 44c here today :/

Cleaned the injectors, came up fine, then i pulled the baskets out and resat them in fresh clean petrol and looks like oil? coming out of a couple its attracted together in the fuel.

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[krusty]

You'd be mad not to give it new 1 piece cam bearings, hone and rings along with mains n big end bearings

[delcowizzid]

yeah cam bearings are a massive source of oil pressure leaks.ive had a few sets fitted with fully assembled engine when swapping cams out

[The1]

sounds good what bearings do you all recomend for cam and bottom end, i see those Clevite 77 bearings mentioned a fair bit.

Just hit 42c outside now thank God for Aircon.

[The1]

There are 3 different head castings. numbers

2136 early heads, known to crack? No injector boss or pockets.
4781 revised head 98-99? has boss and injector pocket for L67 and L36 and is drilled for the injectors in L67
8134 ?? No injector pocket . Possibly L26 heads.

where's the head number located?

Found the number mine are 4781 and has the injector holes as stated.

[Holden202T]

I normally get king engine bearings, but I don't know if they are anything special or not, but I've never ad any issues with them even with 19psi of boost