Quote:
Originally Posted by gweilbaker
Mark,
You are close to Rich over in Skokie, He is straight up and can answer any questions and concerns.
Here's his stuff from his site;
STORE HOURS
Monday thru Friday 8:00am to 4:30 pm
Saturday 8:00am to12:00pm
ANTIQUE ENGINE REBUILDING
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With all due respect to Glenn and everyone concerned, Rich does not do babbitt, ....and is the manufacturer of aftermarket inserts and inserted rods, so in my mind his opinion would already be swayed towards inserts only. Maybe his opinion would be satisfactory anyway??
Second, Mark when you say you are looking into a new engine, are we speaking of Terry Burtz's "new" engine, a Donovan Model 'D' engine, or a NOS Model 'A' block?
My personal opinion (and what I tell my customers) is that alot of this depends totally on whether the engine will have a counterweighted crankshaft, ...and whether the engine owner has the ability to do his own mechanic work, --namely adjusting the bearing clearances. If the engine has a new Burlington crankshaft or an adequately counterweighted crankshaft, my experiences are that you cannot remove the rear main cap with the engine still in place. Therefore if the owner must pay for someone to remove the engine to adjust the babbitt clearances, then IMHO it is worth paying the upgrade for inserts simply because of the thinner layer of soft metal (babbitt) on the insert shell.
The second side of this is how the babbitt is poured. Is it burnished during the rebuild? I know there are folks that disagree with this task however it speaks of this operation at the factory and suggests that this was to be done by the rebuilder, thus I feel it is an important step in longetivity. If the crankshaft is undersized, the poured babbitt is thicker. If a large stack of shims is placed under the cap, then the babbitt is thicker by even more so. This is not good because the cap can walk and the soft metal (babbitt) is easily repositioned. If either one of these happens, then the effective life is shortened. Also, much depends on how the crankshaft has been machined. Inserts can mask a poorly machined crankshaft better than thick babbitt can.
I could go on and write a complete dissertation but I guess it all boils down to the initial comment about who is doing the rebuilding and which crankshaft you choose to use.
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