Datsun Roadster Forum-311s.org

I am new to Datsun , just trying to help a friend put the motor ,that a shop took apart in 2006, back together. It’s a 1969 1600 . Apparent the last guy ordered bearings for an “L” block , but this is an “R” block . Can anyone give me a source for bearings ?

I would start at datsunparts.com

Kuz1 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 25, 2023 2:02 pm I am new to Datsun , just trying to help a friend put the motor ,that a shop took apart in 2006, back together. It’s a 1969 1600 . Apparent the last guy ordered bearings for an “L” block , but this is an “R” block . Can anyone give me a source for bearings ?

R16 5 main bearing blocks and U20 blocks use the same bearings and they can be found on ebay often from older shops as well as datsunparts.com, sincitydatsuns.com, datsun-roadster-parts.com and probably datsunrestorationproducts.com as well.
You'll need to measure the crank to buy the correct size bearings.
I've had great experiences with all the vendors I listed.
Good luck and let us know the progress.

As Solex68 mentioned, the crank and rod bearings need to be measured, competently, to ascertain what bearings are required.
This not something that I have ever trusted myself to do, it requires some whizz bang tools and perhaps machining of the surfaces to achieve.
Just my opinion, but I would outsource it to a decent engine shop and have them do the deed and then you will have the peace of mind that the correct items have been specified.
Shouldn't take long and may not be expensive to use their expertise.

All bearings are stamped on the backside with std or whatever size they are undersized to. If the crankshaft was re-ground then the machinist should have told you the size bearing to buy. If the crankshaft wasn’t re-sized then you would probably want to have it micro-polished to have a nice finish for the new bearings to break in on. Don’t forget to inspect the thrust bearing surface of your crankshaft.
Dave

It may be that the L bearings were purchased in the correct size for whatever they did to the R crank. That is std, .010 or maybe .020. It might give you a starting point but in no way would I just buy R bearings in that size and put them in without a competent machinist looking at it.

Hopefully it wasn't ground for L engine journal size. L bearings are probably the wrong width too.

I took my G cranks for my R 1800 strokers in, they looked it up and ground them down. I had bought a stash of bearings in different sizes. The shops seem to have trouble finding the bearings unless you send them to a vendor. Just finished putting the first short block together.