94 Mustang GT: Daily Driver Motor: Crankshaft Polish

Another update!

I was finally able to sync up with my buddy who has his own machine shop. We got a LOT done this sunday. before that, I modified my parts washer so that I could clean up the crank. I used a basin for a hot water tank, plumbed a drain, and ran an extension on the spicket. This gave me a much bigger basin to work in.

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After the crank dried, I coated the journals with some WD40. A few days later it was off to my friends shop!

The first thing we did was mic the journals. they were all in spec but needed to be polished. The crank was put into the lathe and turned at a slow speed. the journals got 600 grit first, then crokus paper - which is 8-900 grit. this polished everything right up. That is a boot lace he is using to work the paper back and forth while the crank is turning.

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once all the journals were done, we used a main bearing to hold the last journal in whats called a steady rest. the snout was chucked int he lathe. We needed to clean up the bore where the pilot bearing lives. some idiot must have chiseled the last one out. we basically removed the high spots without removing any material from the bore. We cannot remove any material because the bearing wouldn't seat right - its a press fit.

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While the engine was there, we used a bore mic and checked all the cylinder bores. they need to be corrected due to some scoring, but they are still in spec! this was great news. We also used a straight edge and made sure the main journals were in line. Everything looked good.

then we drilled out a broken WP bolt and removed it using an easy-out. inspection told us that the bolt had bottomed out in the hole. whoever built this motor was really sloppy.

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So the crank is ready and the block has been checked. Now I can order the main / rod bearings and the new rings. The perfect circle rings are what are used by most of the engine builders on the corral. The clevite bearings are stock replacement bearings. Clevite makes all sorts of bearings for different applications (billet / forged crank for example) and in a variety of different sizes. These below are stock replacements only. I'm not racing this car, so I won't waste the money on the high end race stuff.

Here are the part numbers and cost:
Mahle Perfect Circle Rings: PCR-3150036-030 - 109$
Clevite 77 Rod Bearings: CLE-CB634P - 4.25 each - 34.00$
Clevite 77 Main Bearings: CLE-MS590P - 39.97$

The next step is to clean the crank again and prep the engine. for the engine prep, I need to chase all the threads, clean the gasket surfaces, clean the block with the parts washer and then coat it with WD40 again. then we can fix the cylinder walls and double check the main bores when the caps are torqued with the new bearings. then it needs to be cleaned again. at that point the re-assembly can begin!