Also, if anyone has an opinion to share about the benefits vs. risks about plastigauging the crank/main bearings I would love to hear it.

 

The benefits...you will know what your clearances are. The draw back....can't think of any. Plasti gauge is a tool for measuring. Why wouldn't you want to measure you bearing clearances?

 

I always use plastigauge when replacing bearings on any engine. Installing new bearings and hoping they are within spec is not a great idea although you might get away with it sometimes. If you match the bearings with the chart in the service manual they will probably be correct, but always a good idea to make sure before assembling the engine.

 

That's what I thought. A friend of mine seems to think I will taking the risk of warping the case. Thanks for your input!

 

Warping the case by using plastigauge? They must be confused.. the plastigauge is used to check bearing clearances by placing pieces of it in the journals and tightening the bearing caps on top of it. It's a very soft plastic material that cannot damage anything.. no chance of warping the case.

 

That's not why he thinks it might warp. He said every time you bolt the and unbolt the case you take a chance of warping it. I didn't think it was likely, just that he wanted to skip a step. Seems to be the case.

 

Yeah it shouldn't really be a factor anyways since you only have to torque the bearing caps down & then remove them to use the plastigauge. You don't have to actually bolt the cases back together or assemble the engine to check clearances.

Either way I would not assemble an engine using new bearings without checking the clearances first