I have done a number of rod bearing changes with the engine in the car. Is this the best way to do this? No. Would I recommend this as a typical maintenance procedure? No. Can it be done successfully? Absolutely. This is especially true when the engine is in good running order. So I don't get flamed, the 3.0L Yamaha engines that came in the Taurus SHO had rather narrow rod bearings with rather large rod journals. The engines typically need rod bearings at 120K miles. The rods were forged and the bottom end was unbreakable but the rod bearings were suspect. I am talking about cars running only Mobil 1 which was changed every 3000 miles.

On to your 4G63 in question, I would recommend that a rod bearing inspection be done at the time the rod bolts are replaced. Take it to a shop the eats and sleeps with the 4G63 like Buschur. They will be able to easily determine if the bearings are worn and replace them with the correct sized replacement while they are replacing the rod and main bolts. The extra cost will be maybe 1 hour of labor. Heck, if it were me, I would probably have the bearings replaced just for the peace of mind. I don't know what rod and main bearings run but it should be less than $120.

You raised a question about the balance shaft. Could it have been bent by being out of phase and shaking like that? I don't know. IIRC, you have done a good bit to improve the power of your engine. You might look into eliminating the balance shaft. I don't know if the engine is balanced differently if the engine has the shaft or not but I bet David Buschur knows this! The rub here is that eliminating the balance shaft, or for that matter replacing it, will carry a heavy labor charge. I would recommend that you drive several other Evos to verify whether your engine is as smooth as other similarly equiped cars. I thing most of these engines are extremely smooth from about 2000 rpm up to about 6500 rpm.

 

ill try to keep this simple.. proper maint. will be your safest bet on a stock motor.. now a modded motor is completly diff.. if you going to be running 500 horse on the stock bottom end, and want to be sure everything is ok, pull the main and rod caps one buy one and check the specs..

in stock form the bearings will tolerate the specs a little off.. but once you start pushing, everything better be exact or things will break.. thats why dealers get away with denying claims cause people are pushing the motor above stock limits.

sometimes these mass produced motors have some minor clearence issues.. if your stock and blow a rod, take it to the dealer.. they will cover it... if you modded your car, either do some preventive maint. before modding big time, or save your money if something does go wrong, because of that 35r you just installed.. things break, and our motors are only as strong as the person that cares for them.. its been that way for ages..

every 10k send your oil out anaylysis.. cut your filter, or do the easy thing and buy the screen for the top of the filter.. change your oil every 5-6 k, unless you really drive in, or put the car car in extreme areas, then i suggest 3-4 k.

lastly, joe dirt says ( i only put a filter, pump, exhaust, and boost controller on the car, and i spun a rod) mitsu says, you modded your engine, you went above factory specs, and they have every right to make you pay.. those are rules, in certain cases they blow, but thats the life in a boosted world..

 

Thanks silverghost and dafarmer!! Great info for me and the others reading this. time to go to Buschur!! Thanks again, you guys are very knowledgable, dafarmer must have been reading and plagerizing a book. you are ill, and couldn't possible write that concicely. I think the "joe dirt" part is yours though!

 

COuldnt you buy a magnetic oil drian plug and inspect it during oil changes for metal shavings in the oil?

 

They come with a magnetic plug stock. maybe a "stronger" magnet?

 

People have been using ARP bolts to hold the crank and rods together for many years. Many 700+ hp motors have been reliably ran with these bolts. Not sure about these "conrod" bolts, but I'm sure they are of the same quality or better. One of the main things you want to watch out for is detonation. Have some way to monitor knock, and your AFR. Excessive knock will kill an engine in a heartbeat. Swapping out your bearings isn't that difficult, on a higher mileage motor I recommend using plastigage so you know what size bearings to use. You should be able to replace all the bearings with the block still mounted in the car. If you are really this worried about the engine, why don't you just remove the block from the car and have it rebuilt with stronger internals? This is a nice way to ensure your 4G63 will hold up to the abuse. I recommend Jackson Auto Machine if you are local to the baltimore/washington dc area, they specialize (as in breathe, sleep, and eat) in 4G63s (EVO & DSM) and have been building them for many, many years:

http://www.jacksonautomachine.com

(they also have awesome 2.3 stroker kits for the EVO)

 

They built my 2.3l stroker for me and yes they do sleep/eat/drink the 4G63

 

And we have Benson Machine (which Tuning Technologies uses) and RRE on the west coast.

 

Smoked - Why don't you just hand your car to Buscher or AMS (especially since they are so close) and let them tell you whats wrong with it? I am sure they will do something by the hour of checking the car out.

You have been talking about doing this for so long. You do all this work on Evom and find out what people here suggest you do but then you have your 'other mechnic' do all the work!!!!???? It makes no sense when we have AMS and Buschur so close.

I hate seeing your car never in full working order the way it should but at least the vinyl rocks jk

I want your car fixed and in perfect order for WWII!! We are going to need it!

Let me know if you need any help getting the car to/from AMS or Buschur.

 

Its not about whats under the hood, its about the VINYL!!! I am taking it to Buschur in a couple weeks! I have to do that sway bar test for Vividracing first. I don't think I will have issues, not full boost, just cornering!

 

Conrod bolt = CONnecting ROD bolt

I would only use ARP bolts in any engine internals. You can't beat them.

 

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When are you taking it to Buschur? You know Al will be there on the 17th-18th and even the 19th I think, of March. You could get both issues resolved at once potentially (tuned and the bearings) if you can get Buschur's Team to look at it soon enough. Let me know if you will need any help getting over there/back.

Smoked, we all know that it's all about the vinyl. I mean, come on, what spells performance better than a whole bunch of vinyl, especially ones that not let you know what the true color of the is??

 

hotrod2448,

Dane Cook IS a silly b*itch. I have noticed that you drive a CT2004! How is the handling on that thing? What color did you get? Did you make any rims out of aluminum foil for that thing in your basement?

 

I thought thats what it meant.

 

I think that there is an issue with the rod bolts on a evo. A rod bearing will not fail unless something goes wrong, and I think with all the thrown bearing issue that I am seeing. I think the rod bolts stretch causing the bearings to fail. I should know, its happend to me twice.