Engine and Transmission Tech

SD1 3.5L.
ARP stud kits are back ordered till August. Can I reuse the existing bolts for cap and rods?

Brian, you can reuse the main bolts in the original positions. If removed you should use new bolts and align hone. If you didn't remove the rod bolts you can reuse them. If removed you should use new bolts and resize big end. Same with ARP studs and bolts. Did you try to find a different supplier?



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2022 01:45PM by mgb260.

Jim, Both the main cap & rod bolts were removed. TWS back ordered, trying Summit and TA, Rimmer is 2X the cost of everyone else.

Can only find ARP stud kits which are all back ordered everywhere. Cannot find standard bolts anywhere. May need to reuse.

Brian, If you were happy with these guys you visited, you can take your block, rods, pistons and rod and main bolts and have them fitted.

[actionmachine.com]

Jim, I did visit and I think they'd be a great resource for any machine work, but.....they are months out on service backlog. Also, I've found that having a relationship with the machine shop is very important, you get a little better attention and service this way as in any business relationship and I do not have any previous business with them. They do not do any radical custom strokong, they probaly reserve those services for their best customers. They do do all other engine machine work and they have a good rep.

I have a good relationship with Seattle Autosport and feel they can handle most work though they are a bit far of a drive.

If no bolting parts resource comes up I intend to reuse the existing bolts. I'll torque the bearings and verify gap measurements. This is a straight mild rebuild of a 3.5, figuring 150-175 HP tops. Excellent motor for someone wanting to upgrade but not go crazy. I had a good engine and I wanted to rebuild in preparation for my 300 build. More than likely I'll selll this engine fully dressed at a reasonable price before running it in so the next owner can break it down and verify and make changes as they want or just run it in and go.

Brian, Buick 215 works in Rover 3.5. Ebay:

[www.ebay.com]

[www.ebay.com]

Still is recomended to align hone mains when changing to studs or changing to ARP rod bolts to resize big ends as caps will distort different.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2022 11:07PM by mgb260.

The shipping is the same cost as the ARP set from TWS…if they had it.

Understood on the align hone, if I change to ARP I’ll run the block back to Autosport. I guess I better check to see if they do it. I was not intending to us3 ARP but the lack of OEM drove me that direction.

Didn't see they were from Australia! On American Ebay. Sorry for the false lead. TA should have the Buick bolts.

OK, lets try this again:

[www.jegs.com]

[www.jegs.com]

[www.summitracing.com]



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/2022 12:52PM by mgb260.

Found both the main caps and rod stud kits with TA, shipping today. Verified with Seattle Autosport that they can do the align hone and resize the rods. $300 for everything plus $150 for the 2 kits, this is getting costly but the block will be right. I was surprised that the original crank journals were in such good shape, requiring standard bearings.

I never thought to check Jegs..thaks, I'll add them to my usual suspects for parts.

Block align honed for ARP studs…costly mistake. Bearings not as tight as I’d wanted but everything was showing as 1.4 to 1.8 thou. Studs tightened to 100 lbs safely. Also did the oil mods. Had a grinder put a pilot point on my 1/2” bit, good to go. Oil galley drill was straight on.






Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/2022 09:01PM by BriansMGBV8.

Ran straight & true.




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/2022 08:12PM by BriansMGBV8.

I use Atlantic British out of NYC for all of my internal Rover parts. Seems to be the most complete and cheapest around. They are Land Rover specialists.

I bought the bearings through TWS. I believe it was more of a communication error on my part with the machine shop. I may need to take the block back as the readings for my rod bearings is less than a thou. I’ve measured 3 so far and all read very right. I just had the big ends done over due to the switch to ARP studs. Bearings were standard. Also, this rod bearing seems to have a little gap/edge.

Brian, .001 is perfect for the clearance. Use 5-30 oil. If under .001 you can polish the crank journal a little to increase clearance.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/17/2022 11:06AM by mgb260.

Brian,

I noticed that those rod bearings do not have the rod spray weep hole notches. I recommend that you use a Dremel to cut some small notches which will allow the rods to spray oil up onto the bottom of the pistons and cylinder walls.

The original bearings had these notches and if you look at the rods you will see the lube port groove machined into one side of the rod. The rods are assembled into the engine with the lube ports facing up.

I once built a 10.25 to compression 215 and I noticed that the rod bearings didn't have the notches. I thought that it was odd, but assembled the engine with the bearings as is. A few years latter when I tore the engine down to build the supercharged engine. I noticed that the pistons and cylinder walls had excessive scoring. The engine only had about 7000 miles on it and piston to cylinder clearance was correct with the exception of the heavy scoring.
I concluded that the abnormal wear/scoring was due to lack of lubrication, from the rod spray holes being blocked off.

Normally I wouldn't be tearing down an engine with 7000 miles and if I had not been doing a compression ratio change I probably wouldn't have caught it until the pistons were worn enough to cause piston slap.

For the supercharged engine, I did cut matching notches in the bearing shells as I wanted to make sure that the pistons received proper lubrication.

Bill



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/17/2022 09:44PM by MG four six eight.

Bill,

Appreciate that info. I looked at my rods and I’m not sure I’m seeing the notches you’re referring to. This engine is a Rover 3.5 also though I didn’t see any notches on the Buick 300 rods I have on my bench. Pics are of the Rover rods.

Brian

I don't know if the Rover had them but the Buick 215 did. Brian if you take a cap off you would see a channel going to the side, On the bottom of this page is a good description:

[www.britishv8.org]

Rover had them. Not sure if all years did. Went down to the garage & scrounged around. Took a couple of pics of a rod from a 1989 Rover 3.9 rod.






Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/2022 03:10PM by MGBV8.