Main bearing cap alignment dowels

[tektic]

I just came across this
Is anyone using these in their block? It seemed like a part that may be worthwhile if no machining is necessary to include.

I can't imagine these were designed specify for this engine. I got 10 replacement sleeves for head bearing caps for $8. Not sure why his set cost $65.

 

[biglady112]

We walked a 7 bolt with these dowels. First build made it 18,000 miles. Refreshed the motor and it walked almost immediately. We had a lot of engines in and out of the car that were seven bolt. It was abouta 50% rate they were walking over the course of about 6 years. He finally gave up and went to a six bolt design and those issues stopped. He converted the car to methonal and open3d up another can I worms.

But, at first I was a believer in those dowels. Now I can find other things to waste my money on. Hopefully the new 7 bolt I just built does not walk like his last one.

 

[MellowVR4]

I once met a guy that rebuilt a 1gb 7 bolt engine and had the machine shop drill an extra hole on the main bearing section of the crank. I guess that fixed the problem? This was a long time ago so I could be wrong. But I'm pretty something with the crank was drilled for extra oil or something like that. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dunno.gif

Just thought I'd share that.

 

[tektic]

I am planning a 6 bolt g63b wide block build which has all independent main caps. I want to install studs and a kiggly girdle. Having to do a main align hone anyway I thought this would be a good addition. The mains don't have to be machined to accept them right? Is it a standard size metric dowel ?