Rings and bearings while I have the engine out?

[MrMarty51]

Many years ago, at the DOT, the service/night shift person hated his job and everyone around him. There was also a night road crew person working the same shift and with fair weather he too was hanging in the shop.
I had a SBC engine tore down, cleaned up and ready to go back together with all the components laid out on the work bench.
Came back to work the next day, laid the block side bearings in position, set the crank shaft into the block and give it a bit of a turn.
One of them @ss holes had taken the electronic scribing tool from the shop supers desk and scribed a line across one of the rod bearing journals on the crank shaft.
Had quite a discussion with the shop super and the field chief about this, field chief asked if there was some way to run it with that mar across the journal. YUP.
Took a fine tooth file and smoothed off the high spots.
A piece of 220 grit emory cloth. Clamped a piece of steel in the vice in a verticle fashion and using some pulling pressure drug the emory over the edge of that piece of steel, knocking off the sharp grit of the emory cloth.
Give the business side of the emory cloth a shot of oil and polished the journal with that piece of emory cloth.
I have always polished crank shafts using that emory cloth method as taught to Me by a very old time mechanic.
Unless the crank shaft has bad grooves around it, if it were mine, thats exactly what I would do to this cranking shaft too.
You will be surprised how nice of a job You can do, and its free.
Oh, on that SBC cranking shaft, the van that that engine was for, had another 100,000 miles on it when it was sent to auction in Helena where the head of the equipment bureau is located. The engine was running just fine with no issues and not consuming oil or rods knocking.

 

[mjmmjm]

I'll talk to my local auto machinist about that. On another note, can anyone confirm that I have an Optimizer block? A double diamond is cast into the valley:

 

[mjmmjm]

Thanks for the info, MrMarty!

 

[Will L.]

Yup- optimizer. Right rear of block near head is the julian date code-shoot a pic of that

 

[mjmmjm]

That's good news - I had no idea. The date stamp is 07 30 K

 

[mjmmjm]

I rolled out the mains and am wondering if anyone has recommendations for rod and main bearings. I'm not looking for the cheapest option.

Also, since I don't know the 6.5 production history, I'll ask about my heads. I have the International Optimizer block dated 2003. Was International making the heads then too or just the blocks? I have the diamond pre-cups, but, apart from that, I don't know anything about exactly what heads they are. And does it matter anyway?

 

[Will L.]

They made the heads too- better than gm heads but still can crack between the valves from heat. This is a likely location for the combustion gas into coolant. I’m now of the opinion that any head other than p400 heads will get the brass tube insert into the steam pockets. It simply seems it is not a matter of if but when every head begins to crack there. Such a simple solution to buy a ton more miles once the cracks start.

I prefer King bearings when possible, but there are other good ones.

Again- don’t buy any yet until it’s all pulled apart & inspected. You could have a cracked block in cyl 7/8 or something still unknown.

 

[MrMarty51]

And the bearings might be of varying thicknesses.
But IDK if the optimizer components were machined more accurately than the GM components.
Your crank journals might be all the same diameter between mains.

 

[mjmmjm]

I'll look into King bearings. No crack in the block, so I ordered a set of Clearwater heads. I might go with Flepro for the gaskets and bolts, but does anyone have any strong opinions? What about Mahle gaskets? The block has most likely not been resurfaced. In the absence of absolute certainty, is it better to err toward standard thickness or +0.10"?

 

[Will L.]

Felpro is good if head bolts, Mahle if studs. If doing studs read the link in my signature.

 

[mjmmjm]

Thanks, Will. I'm itching to go with main and head studs, but maybe I'm just going overboard. FelPro bolts are about as inexpensive as it's going to get, so that's tempting.

I'm also considering replacing the nylon rocker arm retainers with another setup. I know there have been discussions of this here and elsewhere, but they seemed to be mostly at the point of trying something new out. Will, I saw some of your input on this. Does anyone know what's been tried, tested, and proven to work over the long haul? I'm a bit uneasy about just getting new nylon ones, and Harland-Sharps would be a hit to the wallet.

 

[MrMarty51]

Thanks, Will. I'm itching to go with main and head studs, but maybe I'm just going overboard. FelPro bolts are about as inexpensive as it's going to get, so that's tempting.

I'm also considering replacing the nylon rocker arm retainers with another setup. I know there have been discussions of this here and elsewhere, but they seemed to be mostly at the point of trying something new out. Will, I saw some of your input on this. Does anyone know what's been tried, tested, and proven to work over the long haul? I'm a bit uneasy about just getting new nylon ones, and Harland-Sharps would be a hit to the wallet.

For rocker spacers.
I went with the very short 3/8ths bolts and self locking nuts, not nylock, with the thick grade 8 washers.
The bolts long enough so that the self locking dimples in the sides of the nuts gets a good bite on the bolt threads.
Have to feed the bolts outwards from the center of the shafts.
Use a screw driver wedged between the nut and the ID of the shaft to secure the nut from turning when tightening the bolts.
If the washers seem to large to give the rockers a slight bit of leeway, place the washers onto a bolt, or shaft, then spin them on a bench grinder to reduce the OD slightly. Sand off any grinding scratches to make the OD nice and smooth.

 

[Will L.]

3 options:

Lowest cost is new plastic buttons. Rare they fail within 100,000 miles but it happens. Not uncommon to make it over 200,000 miles.

Marty gave you the middle option. Several people have run this for a long time. Medium cost, labor intensive, should be permanent.

Harland is the best option as long as you ignore your wallet.

It’s really a case of how much insurance $ do you want to spend to get that extra little amount of protection.

If going Harland then you can choose bigger rocker ratios for a better running engine. While the roller tips help in theory even at 1.5 stock ratio, the gain will be minimal. 1.6 will give you more of whatever you do- drive like grandma and go for mpg it will help, put your foot into it and you will get more power. Will you ever get enough mpg savings for to pay their cost? NEVER. And until you are running a bug turbo, cooled intake, bigger exhaust & more fuel- the cost of the Harlands aren’t the answer.
If you plan on doing the other stuff then doing them makes sense.

To me- I have had some horrible luck over the years being the 1 in 10,000 who had items fail that no one else did. So that insurance spent helps me relax better rather than worry.