Last weekend I had some time to check the connecting rod bearing clearance which was again interesting to do. All 4 of the rod bearings were in the .0013-.0015″ clearance range which is a bit on the tight side but still within limits for this turbo build engine.

Just like the main bearings I placed a piece of plastigage on the crank journals and tightened up the rods bolts slowly. I made sure I did them evenly to make sure the rod cap went on straight. I already had ARP molly lube on the threads and head of the bolts from the machine shop so I tightened the bolts up to 25ft-lbs first then to 43ft-lbs.

I loosened of the bolts with a 2 stage process and knocked of the caps with a piece of wood being very carefull. I then used the Green Clevite’s Plastigage to check the rod bearing clearances which were all around .0013 to .0015″.  On the right is another picture of my bottom end with my rod caps on.