Hello all,

 

I am rebuilding the 2.5L from my '98 Outback. I have had a knock for the last year that sounded like a rod to me. It was heavy sounding, worse when cold.

 

Finally, I had the head gasket leak that appears common (slowly forces coolant out the overflow...). I pulled the engine to go through it thoroughly.

 

After getting the crank back from polishing, I checked the bearing clearances with new bearings. The rod bearings were good, in the low to middle of the tolerance.

 

The main bearings are marginal at best. The tolerance is .0004-.0015 with a service limit of .0016 (Haynes manual). I am reading .0013-.0017 (guestimating Plastigage).

 

Is it possible to get bearings with a different "class of fit" to reduce the clearance? Judging from the coding on the crank itself, the factory appears to match bearings to journal sizes. My dealer only has listings for standard.

 

If this is not possible, what are my options? I priced a crank through Subaru, but the parts department can't tell me whether the "crankshaft, complete" includes bearings or not, they are looking in to it. Or, if I have the crank ground, does Subaru or anybody else supply bearings in standard undersize increments?

 

The dealership, while large (VanBortel in Upstate New York) does not do any rebuilding, so they have been little help.

 

If you have some experience with this, I look forward to hearing what you have to say. Feel free to ask for any additional information.

 

Regards,

 

Dave

Maybe the information is in the Subaru engine manual. You can get a copy for a price from techinfo.subaru.com/

 

Rod

Rod,

 

Thanks for the link. I'm not ready yet to pay for literature of unknown (to me) value. I'll do some searching on this board to see if others have been satisfied with the service.

 

If I don't get any feedback here, then I might have to go that route regardless.

 

Thanks,

 

Dave

it's cheap for a 7 day pass to be able to d/l the entire factory service manual. It's definitely alot easier if you have broad band.

I work at a Toyota dealership ( <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/embarassed.gif ALT=":o"> ), and we sell sets of bearings, completely separate from cranks. I haven't checked, but I don't think they're undersized or anything, just set to factory, <em>new</em>, specs.

 

I wonder, would Cobb Tuning or any of those places sell over- or under-sized bearing sets? Places like that are as good, if not better, quality than OEM...

 

I agree that I would definitely pursue the tightest clearance allowable, so that this basically new engine can get the proper amount of oil pressure, etc. etc. But you already knew that, I'm sure

Well, the dealership parts department never did call me back to let me know if the "crankshaft, complete" included matched bearings. It's been too busy for me at work to take the time to call them again. I'll make some calls this weekend to the dealer, Cobb, and some others that I have in mind. I need to get this resolved soon.

 

From what I have been able to find on the web, I am guessing that there is a new crank in my future. I have not even seen a listing for anybody that sells remanufactured cranks. There seems to be no middle ground on Subaru parts, it's either stock factory parts or high-end performance parts. I have not even found aftermarket gasket sets...

 

Thanks for the replies,

 

Dave

You might want to contact this company, they do a fair number of Subaru engine rebuilds.

 

<a href="http://www.ccrengines.com/" target="top">http://www.ccrengines.com/</a>

Subaru does sell undersize bearings, as far as I know.

 

A new crankshaft does not come with bearings, you will have to order them separately (std size).

 

Good luck.

Wow, I never realized this was not fairly common information!

 

Toyota engines are different in that you DO have to buy the bearings according to each individual journal.

 

If you're not happy with the specs you are coming up with, you can have the crank "turned" by a competent crank grinding shop. There should be at least a couple in any good-sized town. Do NOT let them cut the thrust, and do NOT turn it more than ".10/.10". (aka .25mm over). They'll know what that means.

 

Yes, you can buy .25mm bearings from the dealer, and yes, that's the only place they're available right now. Be sure to specify date of manufacture, because the cranks are very year-specific.

 

New cranks never come with the bearings, incidentally.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Emily

www.ccrengines.com