Rod & main bearings & head gasket

[sprjit22]

Ok in the morning Im going to get me a GSR motor. It is tore all apart & bored, honed, new pistons, rings, rods etc etc..... My question is what rod & main bearings should I go with OEM? If not give me your opinion on what ones & why. Also what head gasket OEM etc etc?? Please give me some ideas. Im wanting to pick up these parts right after I get the motor.

 

[integraracer157]

i seen alot of acl bearing fail, id go with safty bearings, you can get them from yoru local machine shop, i got a 100,000 miles on mine and i redline daily. ive also used clevit very good also.

 

[lsvtec]

Not sure if things have changed, but 4 years ago most aftermarket bearing sold here in the US were made by the same manufacturer and then branded by a reseller. So for the most part if you bought aftermarket, you got the same thing regardless of the "brand". I really would go with Honda, they clearance their bearings much tighter than the aftermarket companies do (hence the bearing colors).

 

[integraracer157]

clearance is in the machine work not a bearing. just as many racers and honda builders perfer hastings rings over any. ACL and safty bearing are there own companys. acl has a new race bearing for high rpms but nobody says if there made for daily driving and cn handle high milage or not. but the brand of bearing has nothing to do with the clearance, if your to tight or to loose its all in the machining.

 

[lsvtec]

The point was that with a Honda bearing your machinist doesn't have to get things exact because you have some room for tighter/looser bearing fits. Also, I haven't seen a crank or block come back from the machinist where every journal was exactly the same, with Honda bearings you are not stuck using the same size bearing in places that are not exactly the same size.

 

[integraracer157]

we must have differant thinking machinist, mine TQ the bearing measures and then does the clearance check by doing the math, he wont polish a crank without the bearings that are going to be used and the block and crank and rods. just like piston clearances they hone to the piston then mark what piston goes into what bore.

 

[lsvtec]

All the machinists I knew in New Mexico were used to working on old V8s and they claimed that there was no way you needed to be that precise (they called it picky) on bearing size. Of course they didn't have to rev to 8200 RPM to make power...

 

[integraracer157]

aw yes i have a few of those around here. the ones who insist that balancing a 4 cyl is a waste of time and money. guess it all goes on location.

 

[brian11to1]

Im going to say OEM unless the crank has had any machine work done. if it has youre stuck using ACL/Clevite etc...

 

[lsvtec]

Not so, you can have the crank remeasured for Honda bearings. Unless your crank has been machined to be too small for use, you can find a Honda bearing to fit.

 

[brian11to1]

I mistakenly left that part out. Sorry for the misinformation. If its ground too small you wont be able to use OEM bearings.