Ok, i am sure the knock i am getting is comming from inside the engine. It's a matter of where. of course if i had a black american express card i could drop off at the dealer and have it taken care of but i am a member of the real world so i have to start some where. Money wise and time wise pulling the oil pan is a cheap start and a no brainer verses pulling all the crap off the top end. Worse case i seal up the bottom end and a bearing set is $75.00. What i need to know if it is a shot bearing , do i then have to have the crank taken out and redone? i mean it cant be as easy as the Rave says... I neen to know that someone with the ability to rebuild SRS systems, pulll hubs , ABs master's and suspension change outs ,what am i looking at worse case.... i mean it cant be as easy as , "oh, this ones loose", i will just replace this bearing and sealer her up....I have a good idea what to look for wear wise but it seems to be it has to be more than that. If a bearing is worn wouldn't the shaft be scored also and have to be fixed? And what does that entail...I dont want this truck stuck in my driveway and have to have it towed to get fixed correctly. I just need to know what i am looking at besides looking at my truck like a piece of Shi&*T as it does now...An help would be greatly appreciated..

Thanks Chris

 

Worn bearings have different signs. The main things will either be scratches in the surface from debris or you'll see how the ends of the bearing look dull, soft and pretty much unscaved but the mass of the surface area will be shiney, rutted, different color etc. A light polishing in the middle of the bearing is normal for higher mileage. A perfect bearing will be smooth, soft grey, no scratches or wear patches. Make sure all the bearing locks are intact on the back of the shell and not crushed or out of place. Make sure the crank has a good high polish. No deep scratches etc. Same goes for the main bearings. Usually the rod and main bearings for the rear cyls will look worse than the front as they recieve oil last. Make sure your thrust bearings are okay. Use a screwdriver or something to pry the crank forward and then back. Shouldn't have more than 20 thousandths or so on any engine. That's forward to backword play. If you find one bad bearing on a rod replace the whole set. Do not replace just one. Same goes for mains.

 

Oh yeah.. Don't be a noob and loosen all your main caps at once. Do one main at a time or you risk crushing your crank seals.

 

Oh yeah again... Unless you have a completed trashed spun or out of place bearing.. Then they are prolly not the source of your noise. They are kind of working or not working and it being obvious as you shortly have a rod out the side of your block or something.

 

Don't worry about the condition of the crank until you know about bearings. Unless the bearing is siezed to the crank then it's most likely usable as it is assuming it's not rutted or obviously damaged

 

While you are in there the other big thing you want to check for is piston slap as the source of your noise. Turn the engine until every piston is at the top of it's bore and look at the cyl walls and see if you see big ruts or scuffs on any of them. If so, make a note of which cyl it is, put the pan back on, put oil in it, crank the engine and ground that cyl out. If the noise goes away then you know what the problem is.

Or you could ground out each cyl first so you know what cyl to look at before you pull the pan etc

 

Garovee says nothing wrong.

I get the impression, tho', you're like me.

If I had a suspect bearing noise, I'd drop the pan, pull all the rod big ends.
I was told that the bearing size is written on the back of the bearing (.010 over, etc.)

IF the rod journals look good, I'd throw in a new set of same size bearings.
If the size is not on them, you should plasti-guage each journal.

The crank journals are much harder than the bearings
I wouldn't touch the mains, unless the engine has a heavy constant knock.

Mine was rattling (reminded me of wrist pin noise)on start, but I changed to 15-40 several mos. ago and it's been fine.

that's what I'd do, since it's a good start to fresh engine if you need to go in the top later.

luck,greg

 

Thanks guys, for all the help...Let me ask also if the parts i would need would be as follows.

bearing set, pan gasget, plastic gage, torq wrench? Do i also need new bolts for the bearing cap keepers?

And yes being a noob as i am i already thought to myself doing only one at a time...

Am i missing anything?

Thanks again, Chris

 

Get some ones phone # before you install anything or do anything major. Rolling in rods and mains isn't rocket science but it's very easy to screw your engine up if attention isn't paid to detail. As easy as it is it's not considered a good idea for a noob to be doing it alone.

 

How many hour job is it if i where to have a shop do it that new what they where doing? I have watched a buch of videos of how to check for play in the rods but thats about it. It's looking gloomy....and $$$$...

Thanks, chris