1991 1.6 stripped engine and noticed a gap
Discussion
New to the forum and looking for a bit of advice. A friend has stripped the engine from my 1991 1.6 Eunos and has just sent me this photo saying that there's a large gap between the main bearing caps and the block. Is this normal?? If anyone with a bit of experience can help it would be much appreciated.
something not right there... is it the right cap for that main? its normal practice to number the main caps before removing them so they go back in the same position. I normally use some centre punch marks. has he done that? if not I would be wondering about the engine builders capability!
all is not lost though... if he has mixed them up, there are often marks on the caps to indicate which way round they go, here is a picture of a Lotus block and you can see it has arrows pointing to the front. if you look close you will see the light centre pop marks indicating the number.
if you put the caps in place without the shells and lightly tighten them you should feel no determinable lip on the bore of the main. if there is, its the wrong cap, or its the wrong way around!
hope he has marked the big end caps as well!
all is not lost though... if he has mixed them up, there are often marks on the caps to indicate which way round they go, here is a picture of a Lotus block and you can see it has arrows pointing to the front. if you look close you will see the light centre pop marks indicating the number.
if you put the caps in place without the shells and lightly tighten them you should feel no determinable lip on the bore of the main. if there is, its the wrong cap, or its the wrong way around!
hope he has marked the big end caps as well!
Edited by buzzer on Friday 26th October 18:47
Just out of curiosity since I've no real engine building knowledge but did he find it like that after he stripped it or is that after he's rebuilt it?
If just after he stripped it was there some catastrophic incident that necessitated the rebuild in the first place because that looks very wrong. Stretched bolts? I wouldn't expect gaps at all and them not being even makes my brain itch.
If just after he stripped it was there some catastrophic incident that necessitated the rebuild in the first place because that looks very wrong. Stretched bolts? I wouldn't expect gaps at all and them not being even makes my brain itch.
thanks for the opinions; the engine overheated badly and blew the head gasket, necessitating the strip down; my friend was worried about heat distortion affecting the main bearing caps and thought perhaps someone on this forum would recognise it as such. He has since tightened the main caps and measured the inside diameter and everything is fine. This has been confirmed with the machine shop
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