Hi Eddie Sheffield!!
On Wed, 28 May 1997, Eddie Sheffield wrote:
> I've never used Plastigauge, so I'm not sure of the details, but I
> _think_ it's a little piece of soft plastic that you temporarily place
In the old, pre plastigauge days, it was a piece of lead wire...
> between the bearing and the journal. You tighten it up (to full torque?)
> then remove it. You then compare how wide the plastic became when
> "squashed" to a chart and that tells you the bearing clearance.
Yup, that's it. The only thing to remember is that there are three
sizes of plastigauge commonly used; red, green, and blue. Each grade
is used for a different range of clearances. If you use the wrong
size of plastigauge, you'll see either a smashed piece of plastic wire
that is too wide for the measuring scale, or a piece of wire that isn't
squished enough to be measured
If my "old fart" memory serves me right, the plastic will dissolve in
the engine oil, so if you forget to remove it, it won't kill your engine
TTUL8r, Kirk Cowen (who doesn't like using feeler gauges to measure
bearing clearances, but is paid to do so...)
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