I recently (last week) had to replace the main bearings in my AAZ. Two of them were totally flaked away.
Anyways, I was thinking it would be helpful to know that if you remove material on the two aluminum plates on either end of the block (the oil pan bolts go into them) you can fit a socket on the main bearing caps.
If you leave them be the clearance is very minimal. One only needs to remove about 1mm of the side wall of those place to fit a socket but in doing so you are able to change main bearings in car.
I removed the material in car which was very difficult and resulted in an extensive cleansing of the under side of the crank/block/rods.
The crank can droop enough on the slack of the rods for you to gently push the bearings out with a flat head screw drover or a piece of wood if you've got on the right size (in the right direction, meaning as so you aren't dragging the notch in the bearing across the journal).
I unfortunately don't have any photos of these plates so im hoping someone who knows what im saying can post to clarify.
If you do this you can change rod and main bearings without dropping anymore than the pan and oil pump.
oh and to do the mains i guess you have to take off the timing belt and the plate on that side.
EDIT: its only cap number 5 (or is it 1? the one closest to the transmission) that you can't take off unless you can either seperate the block from the tranny or you remove some material to clear a 17mm socket on the bolts. Either way, without that cap off the crank shaft can't droop enough to get the top side bearings out.
Topic: engine rebuilding tip (not sure where to put this) (Read 4388 times)
