Babbitt Bearings are our Specialty!
Willington, CT
860-429-3111
The antique engine rebuilding/repair process and pricing.
Currently at Aldrich we concentrate solely on antique engines. Our projects arrive from Connecticut, New England and further away:
~ Automotive, Light Industrial, Truck, Heavy Equipment (Bulldozers, etc.), Tractors, Marine and Motorcycle engines
~ Bulb Head, Over Head, Flat Head, “T” Head and “F” Head
~ The oldest engine worked on to date: 1905 Maxwell, Twin Cylinder, Bulb Head
Aldrich Engine Rebuilding does not tolerate bogus shortcuts, for instance:
Getting rid of those nasty cotter pins!
In an engine rebuild I use torque wrenches because I rely on specs. With a torque wrench I have the critical control to keep parts within safe, recommended tolerances. With cotter pins...no way, they're fast and have their uses but over the years, far too many times have ended up where they don't belong.
A properly calibrated torque wrench always stretches the bolt the same amount. Trying to “make” the next “castle” on the nut over stretches the bolt thereby limiting its life and possibly compromising its strength. “Torque to Spec!”
Your antique engine deserves special treatment.
Our workshop is 1700 square feet over two floors allowing us to do the work under one roof. That's important because once your engine has been broken down and the more those individual parts travel the higher the likely hood of something becoming lost. It is my personal policy to do as much work “in house” as possible and to “Send Out” only when necessary
A few thoughts on Babbitt Bearings.
“Babbitt, also called Babbitt metal or bearing metal, is any of several alloys used for the bearing surface in a plain bearing.”
Wikipedia
One of my competitors likes to mention that he uses Henry Ford's original Babbitt formula. While there's nothing wrong with that remember that Henry Ford was not the only manufacturer of cars back then nor was his the only Babbitt formula.
The policy at Aldrich is the right Babbitt for the job. If you specify a particular Babbitt formula we'll use that. If no specification is made I'll typically use NO.2 Genuine (87% Tin, 7% Antimony, 3.5% Copper and .5% Lead). I've had great success with this particular formula but if something else is called for I'll use whatever is best for that particular job.
Bottom line on all this Babbitt stuff-will it make a difference to me?
On a recent job I notice the rods have excessive clearance on the thrust faces and this was a "rebuilt" engine. I look a little closer at the babbitt on the rods and discover that they are rebabbitted with lead based babbitt! Wow!!
LEAD based babbitt is used and still sold to rebuild wood shop machinery like table saws, band saws, planers, etc. LEAD BASED babbitt CANNOT WITHSTAND what is called Reciprocating Mass. In other words, up and down, round and round motion and vibration.
Folks working on the major FORD models A , B, V-8 and T (frequently out of habit or for cost) end up with lead based babbitt. What can I say old habits can be hard to break. It can take a little extra effort to switch to genuine tin based babbitt like I use. The tin based babbitt generally costs a little more also, it should, better quality generally does. When suppliers buy lead based babbitt rods, they resell them to guys to use in their cars. Within a year those rods have "pounded out" and the clearances need to be readjusted.
In short they're so cheap they're expensive due to constant readjusting of the shims, replacing oil pan gaskets and time spent laying under a car that you should be driving. The engine I took apart was "rebuilt" to sell the truck. It's cylinders were bored out, new pistons/rings were installed, the valves were poorly reground, other sub-standard things were done and the rods were those lead based ones.
This engines off of “life support” for now but I'm still working on it and can only wonder what condition the crank and mains are in.
All too often an engine gets thrown together with whatever is laying around including cheap rods...and gets called a rebuild. Call me crazy but I love these old engines and I would never pull those kinds of stunts. So yeah, I'd say it makes a difference.
