I’m starting to prep my 3.8 engine for a rebuild. It was taken fully apart and stored in a barn by the previous owner for over 20 years. I inspected the crankshaft and there is some rust pitting on a few of the journals. I’ve tried to hand polish with very little affect, Need advise and has anyone sent a crank out to be polished. All the machine shops in my area no long polish cranks
Douglas,
This is an international list. Where in the world do you live?
I had work done on the crankshaft of the 4.2L XK engine in my 1969 E-Type and can recommend a shop in San Diego if you live in southern California.
Paul
Hi Paul, I live in North Carolina. I’m assuming ill need to ship to a reputable shop that polishes cranks
@Dick_Maury is in your area: maybe he’ll have a recommendation.
Any decent machine shop should be able to do a very light polish with fine crocus cloth.
Actual pitting probably isn’t going to be overly helped by a simple polish. The are commonly cut to an under size and use larger bearings, both of which are available in 10, 20, 30 and 40 thou over. Polishing is really only up to the task of cleaning up bearing deposits and smoothing minor scoring.
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Depending on:
- where the pitting is (non-thrust side)
- how deep
…Crocus cloth polishes work fine.
Before you go any further check all of the journals for taper and ovality and to determine if they have been ground previously. .002”-.003” is the oil clearance recommendation. Mains 2.750” Rods 2.086” std. If they check out a few very minor pits (indentations) will not be a problem for a stock road going car.
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You need to find a shop that builds race engines ( shouldn’t be too hard)!