Hi!
Isn't Babbit our secretary of the interior or something? he used to be
the gov of Arizona...
Seriously...
I have very little experience with babbet bearing 6 cyl Chevy engines.
I rebuilt a 1953 235, from a standard transmission car, well over 20
years ago. The main bearings were inserts, and the rod bearings were
poured babbet. The rod bearings in the engine I worked on were ok,
still solid, nice grey look to them, so I left them alone, and just
adjusted the clearance by removing shims. The mains were replaced with
new bearing inserts, again I adjusted the clearance with shims as
needed. I left the crank standard size, I think it got polished. I had
the cam bearings replaced, they are driven into the block with a special
tool.
Nowadays, many machine shops have a jet washer instead of a hot tank
(vat), and so they can clean a block without destroying the cam
bearings. If your machine shop can do this, you may want to have them
leave the cam bearings alone, if they are in good shape and you're just
going to put the engine back together with minimum new parts. You will
want to remove the main bearing inserts, but do it by hand instead of
with a screwdriver if possible.
Keep track of the shims!!! if there are any...and there should be in
both the main and rod bearings. Even a 1959 235 I rebuilt way back when
had these shims on the main bearings, which surprised me.
When you put it all back together, check the bearing clearances with
plastigage (available at real parts stores or from the machine shop).
Good luck...don't be afraid to ask more questions!
Jim
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
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