Fox Rod Bearing Size

[Andrew.whitt]

Hello all, I’m in the process of freshening up my 85’ 5.0. My plan was to open it up and do a wellness check since I have receipts for past machine work but don’t know how hard it’s been driven before I got it. I was getting some smoke from the passenger side breather. The cylinders all still have the crosshatching on the walls and no damage that I was able to see. My plan is to do rings and rod bearings but I’m sort of stuck on what to do with the bearings. Can I just find out what size I have now and reuse the same size since the bottom end was workjng perfect when I took it apart? I’m definitely not gonna cheap out and re-use the old ones. I know it’s usually standard procedure to mic the crank and plastigauge clearances in this situation but is it necessary for this particular case? Any help appreciated!

 

[90sickfox]

New bearings on an old unpolished crank aren't the best idea. You've got to remove the crank so you might as well take it over to a machine shop and get the crank and rods checked out.

....if you go that far....might as well get the block and heads checked while you're at it.

 

[revhead347]

Smoke from the breather just means the PVC system isn't sucking. Nothing to do with the health of the engine. If the compression is good, and it's not making any bad noises, a refresh is money poorly spent. Throw that bitch back together and beat it mercilessly. When it starts to make noises, you will end up spending the same amount of money you are willing to spend now for no reason at all.

Kurt