HELP! I-5 crankshaft end-play problem

[Kneale Brownson]

Isn't a "race" engine, as in an Indy car for example, something that gets
rebuilt after 500 or so stressful miles?  I sure wouldn't use "race" engine
building practices as the way to go in a car I want to drive 100K miles.  

At 11:37 PM 2/4/2004 -0500, Ameer Antar wrote:
>Thanks for responding guys. I too am normally on the cautious side, 
>especially since I have no real experience rebuilding bottom-ends. I took 
>the bearing shells over to the race shop and talked with the owner. I told 
>him how everything now has the perfect clearance, but my concerns over 
>having the copper showing. He told me he sands the thrust bearing shells for 
>all the engines he builds. He's been in the race engine business for over 20 
>years and never had a problem with that. He even showed me a race engine he 
>was building that had the copper showing on the thrust surfaces of the 
>bearing shells.
>
>At first, I was a little worried myself, but now with all his assurances and 
>experience, I'm going to go with it as is. I figure if a race engine, which 
>will see much more rpm's than mine ever will, can handle sanded bearings, 
>mine will too. Now that I think about all those metals, copper is a bit 
>harder (not much) than the babbit coating on the shells, and the original 
>thrust washers are some sort of steel, so actually the OE design dictates an 
>even harder surface than babbit or even copper. I guess that means w/ the 
>new design there will be more wear in the bearing shell thrust surfaces than 
>the crank's. I guess thrust surface wear is not a huge issue... certainly 
>not as big an issue as journal surface wear which directly affects oil 
>pressure. I hope everyone knows I only sanded the thrust surfaces on the 
>side and not the journal surfaces of the bearing. The shop owner did the 
>machining on the bottom-end, and he's guaranteeing it. So, doing this is 
>sorta like doctor's order
> s. I'm planning on running the motor in this body for a while, then 
>transplanting it to a nice clean quattro shell (if there is such a thing) 
>when funds and a good opportunity turn up. So I guess I'll found out how 
>much difference in wear there is then. I really appreciate all the advice 
>and concern; really shows people care on this list... I'll be sure to let 
>you know of any future troubles.