'89 Corolla All Trac Rod Bearing Replacement

[andrew12159]

Hello, New to the forum and a new Corolla owner. Just picked up a '89 Corolla All Trac Wagon SR-5. Has a horrible engine knock. Sounds like rod bearings. I want to keep the car as it is in great shape has power windows and a moon roof. Can I replace the rod bearings with the engine in the car? it looks like I can get the Oil pan off and there seems to be room to work. Has anyone done this?

[94_Rolla_Guy]

can be done in the car!!! i did mine and its still holding out! at least pull the oil pan and inspect the bearings in car, if in fact it is them id pull some main caps and check the mains as well, if there gone yank the engine,

hey on another note i got a engine oil cooler off a 91 version of what you have, but the plumbing of the system was destroyed maybe you could take a look and see what goes where?

[andrew12159]

One line goes to the oil pan and one comes of the oil filter housing.

[tashirosgt]

The Toyota OEM rod bearings come in various thicknesses that differ by about 2 ten thousandths of an inch. All the aftermarket rod bearings that I measured are slightly thinner than the thinnest of the OEM bearings. So if yo want a tight engine (and can actually use plastigage upside down!) get the OEM bearings.

[andrew12159]

Do I have to remove the undercarriage brace that runs under the oil pan or the exhaust pipe that alsoruns under the oil psn?

[andrew12159]

Question, The #3 cyl. is the culprit for the rod knock. There was nothing left of the bearings. I bought standard size bearings and installed them on #3 but there is too much play. I can move the rod on the crank. I need a source for oversize(?) bearings. Toyota only has standard size. It is oversize that I need?

[tashirosgt]

Which stardard size did you buy? I think they are denominated "Mark 1", "Mark 2" and "Mark 3".

See if your crankshaft or rod has been ground down (or out) by some ridiculous amount. Platigage it while the standard bearing is in place, if you can. You can probably get .002 or even .004 inch oversized bearings. Clevite lists .002 oversize here
http://engineparts.com/pdfs/oversizeconnrodsets.pdf
but I wasn't able to find out which bearings go to which engines on their doofus website.

[andrew12159]

Plastigage won't work. There is enough movement that the rod will move up and down. Although the movement is 1/4 what it was. The rod cap is marked with a "2". I bought federal mogul bearings and they came in a set for the whole engine.

[tashirosgt]

Accoding the 89 Service manual, these are the available Toyota OEM bearings

No 1 1.486-1.490 mm (0.0585-0.0587 in)
No 2 1.490-1.494 mm (0.0587-0.0588 in)
No 3 1.494-1.498 mm (0.0588-0.0590 in)

The '2' on the rod cap indicates that rod had a No 2 bearing.

There is a standard OEM oversized bearing: 0.25 mm oversize 1.607-1.613 mm (0.0633-0.0635 in)

As I said, the aftermarket bearings I have seen are all on the thin side and they only came in one "standard size" which was slightly thinner than No 1 when I measured them.

If you can't plastigage it, you mibht be able to use a feeler gauge. Stick something thin and tapered like a straight pin in and mark how far it goes with a Sharpie. Then try to estimate its thickness there.

[andrew12159]

Hmmm, If the ones I have are thinner than the #1 and I need a #2 then that might explain the play I am getting. I might just go to toyota and get a #2 and a #3 and try both of them. Toyota parts guy said that they don't have oversized bearings. The bearings are 8 bucks so I am willing to get 2 or 3 different sizes and try them. The crank journal looks pretty good. The rod journal looks decent so I am hoping that I just have the wrong size bearing. thanks for your help.

[tashirosgt]

If there is too much play to use plastigage, I'm not optimistic that 2 x .003 = .006 inches more will help, but good luck.