Pilot bearing stuck

[TheFourSixThatCould]

I blew my motor, got it built, and now doing the pilot bearing because I had a new one, but it’s stuck the absolute fuck in there, I’ve used the bread, a pulled from autozone and have just destroyed the thing and not moved a mm and only thing left I can think is to cut it out which I don’t wanna do or take it back to my engine shop which is a 2 hour drive and I don’t have any time and no spare car lol. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[JC SSP]

Have you tried drilling it out?

 

[TheFourSixThatCould]

Have you tried drilling it out?

No that’s the route imma take after work, you have any tips or do I just cut a slit in it to try and release pressure

 

[JC SSP]

If you had an easy-out that might work too? Just don’t damage the wall since you will need to insert a new pilot bearing.

 

[Jwood562]

Im assuming drilling it out would be crazy risky because it would have be a handheld drill and running true square would be hard. also, from experience, I had to drill 1/2" holes recently. the drill bit came in at .497", and the 1/2" hardware came in at .507" a .10" difference. annoying!

 

[JC SSP]

I would have thought the machine shop that did the rebuild would have replaced or at least removed the pilot bearing.

I think drilling or using another puller might be your only option? Not sure if you can heat the rear of the crank to try to expand the metal?

 

[LikeabossTM]

I'm gonna go ahead and suggest that bread is a poor man's 'kind of hydraulic' action, you're better off trying a much denser hydraulic medium such as grease. Pack it in, get a tight fit rod on it, and give it a few good whacks. The tighter the fit, the less grease you'll get in the face (wrap a bit of towel around where the rod goes into the bearing before you start whacking, unless you like that sort of money shot).

Next up would be a slot cut into the inner bearing surface, perpendicular to the face. With a dremel, halfway in from the face should be enough to avoid damaging the crank. Then a chisel to crack it free.

This is all covered in a motor trend article, Google it.

 

[TheFourSixThatCould]

I'm gonna go ahead and suggest that bread is a poor man's 'kind of hydraulic' action, you're better off trying a much denser hydraulic medium such as grease. Pack it in, get a tight fit rod on it, and give it a few good whacks. The tighter the fit, the less grease you'll get in the face (wrap a bit of towel around where the rod goes into the bearing before you start whacking, unless you like that sort of money shot).

Next up would be a slot cut into the inner bearing surface, perpendicular to the face. With a dremel, halfway in from the face should be enough to avoid damaging the crank. Then a chisel to crack it free.

This is all covered in a motor trend article, Google it.

Looking back they engine shop prolly replaced it but it looked old and didn’t think it would be an issue to remove. I got it out by drilling enough out to fit the slide hammer attachment from autozone and it came right out with a tiny nick on the crank, thanks for the help guys.

 

[cgornowich]

That damn pilot bearing can be stubborn. I had to cut the last one out of mine with a die grinder. Be careful, many of the stock blocks are aluminum and the hole in the block is actually softer than the steel bearing race.... Take your time and grind slowly.