plastiguage???
Burning Brakes
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 983
Likes: 1
From: Bergen County NJ
Re: plastiguage??? (premiervette)
Remove rod bearing cap and insert a strip of plastiguage across the bearing. Reinstall cap and torque down. Remove cap and you'll see that the plastiguage has flattened out. The tighter the clearance, the wider the plastiguage gets. The kit comes with a printed gauge to compare against the flattened strip - just match up the width and it tells you the clearance.
Race Director
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 16,838
Likes: 341
From: Database Error Indiana
Re: plastiguage??? (premiervette)
Good stuff. Cut a strip, lay it across the bearing surface on the crank, torque down the bearing cap and then remove it. Compare the smashed bit on the crank with the sample on the pack, and you have a reading. Clean it off before assemby. :chevy
Burning Brakes
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 1,143
Likes: 5
From: CASTLE ROCK CO
Re: plastiguage??? (premiervette)
i heard that you should use plastigauge for the connecting rods to check for clearances but how do you use it? what do you do? certain procedure? :confused:
Burning Brakes
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 1,193
Likes: 1
From: Meadville PA
Re: plastiguage??? (OleDog)
you do it when your first putting a motor together and the bearings have to be dry as in no oil to get a good reading...using mics and caliopers is a far better way to check this... put plastigaauge will work for a grocery getter motor...it is a very crude way of checking a very important clearance :skep:
Melting Slicks
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 2,700
Likes: 3
From: Lebanon KY
Re: plastiguage??? (premiervette)
good to hear somone is actually putting a motor back together the correct way :crazy: around here people just throw em together and don't measure nothing :eek:
anyways, i always use the green plastiguage. i find it works best. you can use it to check clearances for the rods, crankshaft, etc. an easy way to get it off afterwards is to use a little clean motor oil on a lint free rag. it'll wipe it right off. :cheers:
anyways, i always use the green plastiguage. i find it works best. you can use it to check clearances for the rods, crankshaft, etc. an easy way to get it off afterwards is to use a little clean motor oil on a lint free rag. it'll wipe it right off. :cheers:
Team Owner
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 83,383
Likes: 87
From: Boston, MA
Re: plastiguage??? (corvettemaster)
I used plastigauge on my current engine's rod & main bearings. Good stuff. :thumbs: Just make sure you use some relatively new stuff. When it gets old it gets brittle and will just sorta turn into powder instead of flattening out.
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Melting Slicks
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 3,375
Likes: 1
From: Northern CA
Re: plastiguage??? (1989redvette)
you do it when your first putting a motor together and the bearings have to be dry as in no oil to get a good reading...using mics and caliopers is a far better way to check this... put plastigaauge will work for a grocery getter motor...it is a very crude way of checking a very important clearance.
:skep:
:skep:
Even using proper equipment, I doubt that the average home engine builder would get more accurate results by measuring the parts and subtracting the difference to get clearance.
Better to measure the clearance directly (Plasti gauge) unless you have the proper measuring equipment and experiance in using it.
[Modified by xs650, 1:42 PM 12/16/2003]
Tech Contributor
Joined: Dec 1999
Posts: 32,910
Likes: 2,402
From: Anthony TX
CI 6,7,8,9,11 Vet
St. Jude Donor '08
Re: plastiguage??? (xs650)
Plastiiguage comes in different thicknesses. The real thinn stuff for connecting rod bearings and thicker stuff for mains. Just make sure that the stuff that you purchase covers the range of bearing clearances that you are trying to read!
It a very good secong check to make sure the machine shop was NOT asleep at the machine!
BC :thumbs:
It a very good secong check to make sure the machine shop was NOT asleep at the machine!
BC :thumbs: