TR4/4A New [old] TR4 crankshaft, bearings?

[Alan_Myers]

Hi all,

Well, I was pretty nervous buying a 40 year old crankshaft off eBay! Cost more to ship than to buy, but overall a very reasonable total.

Yesterday it arrived via UPS Ground... The replacement I plan to use in my TR4. The idea is to have it reworked and ready to go, along with a matching set of bearings, before the engine is even pulled so that the rebuild can be done as efficiently as possible.

I'm breathing a sigh of relief... This crankshaft is in surprisingly good shape! Must have come from a low mileage car, and one that was babied at that, with frequent oil changes and such. All seven journals have no detectable ridges or wear marks, are totally smooth.

Might even be able to use it "as is", but I'll reserve judgement until it's properly and completely checked out by a machine shop. I'm just using dial calipers, which seem to show everything within the "loose" tolerance, such as might be used in a race motor that doesn't get any break-in time.

Of course, this is a street car that *will* see normal break-in and it might be wise to go ahead and grind to .010" over on everthing anyway.

We'll see after the crank is more carefully miked by a shop and checked for any out of round too. (My good measuring stuff was stolen some years ago and never replaced since I'm not doing machine shop work any more.)

This crank will be going to a machine shop anyway. At a minimum, it needs to be cleaned inside and out, throughly crack-detected, modified for a "modern" rear oil seal and additonal flywheel bolts, then possibly have the journals hardened.

Questions:

What currently available main and big end bearings are folks using and recommending? Sources? I am finding a pretty limited selection out there for the 4-cylinder TR motor, mostly bi-metal although I've always heard a tri-metal bearing was better in this motor. In the old days, Vandervell (sp?) were the ones to look for, but they seem largely unavailable. Thoughts and opinions?

Assuming the crank gets reground, or maybe even if it doesn't, what do you think about hardening the journals, probably nitriding? Also, what do you think about shot-peening the rest of the crank, or any other process? Worthwhile?

Note: This motor should redline around 6000-6200 rpm once it's done. It's being built and set up more for low/mid range, such as autocross and street use, rather than a high revving, road race screamer (in which case I'd be saving up for a new billet crank$$$$haft).

Your thoughts, opinions and recommendations would be very much appreciated!

Cheers!

 

[Alan_Myers]

Well, this is interesting...

Searching the Internet for info, it looks like AE, Vandervell, Glacier, Clevite and maybe even some other old name brand/bearing manufacturers are now all owned by Dana Corporation!

 

[Guest]

Alan,
TRF did have a small cache of Vandervell crank bearings left over as of recently. You might make a call to Charles or Dave and see if they are still there and if so, will they sell them.

Bill

 

[Simon TR4a]

Alan there has been a lot of discussion on the Friends of Triumph racing board about this recently.
The conclusion was that Vandervell, if you can find them, would be first choice, and that "King" bearings, made in Israel, werte also giving good results. I will check the thread again, but I think Glacier were found inferior for more highly stressed engines.
Also, given the rpm you are contemplating, nitriding or cryogenic treatment of the crank might be worthwhile. I am no metallurgist but understand there are different ways of doing both these processes involving different temperatures and durations in order to harden to different depths.
It appears that a properly done cryogenic treatment changes the crystalline structure of the metal from austenitic to martensitic, thus strengthening the bonds between the crystals.
Worth doing some research on; though not necessarily a "magic bullet".
Let us know how it works out!
Simon.