VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1949-1954 1954 235 crankshaft

We had the crank turned on my son's 54 235 engine that he has in his 51 4dr sedan.
The rods are 20 under and the mains are 50 under, will we have problems finding the correct bearings and shims?
I would like to try NAPA and Carquest first to save on shipping.
Thanks in advance, Bob

There should be no problem finding the .020" under rod bearings and they use no shims.The .050" under mains could be a problemI have never heard of more than .040 under main bearings.Can the person (shop) that turned the shaft to .050 under come up with a sorce for the bearing inserts?...Shims are around-may take some searching-but new ones could be cut out using the old ones for patterns ore the main bearing cap as a pattern.If the engine is from a '56 or later no shims were used.1956 and up used a tang on the side of the bearing to lock in place and the earlier years had a large round "lug" in the center (top and bottom). I don't think your going to have much choice on the mains and if you find the correct size you will be luckey.

Before I went to work this afternoon I called NAPA and he had the 20 under for the 54 crank, but not the 50 under. He told me that he had 40-60 under for a 55 crank. Is there a difference between cranks for 1954 and 1955?
The man that did the crank for us, said that Federal Mogul would have the bearings.
Thanks, Bob

I think I would probably ask the machinist to order in the bearings, he probably would get you a good price on them, then would have some involvement in being sure they are what you need, that is if your relations with him are still good.
Just my opinion.

The 235 cranks are the same from 53-62 but the blocks and bearing caps are different.As per my 1st post the method of locking the bearing insert into the block and crank shaft changed in late 1955.If you have a 1954 block there will be a round hole in the top center of the block and lower center of the main bearing cap.In the later style there will be just a little notch at one side of each-that is the difference and its a major one .The early insert has what they called a dowel-a round raised hump that locked the bearing into the block-check the back of old insert to see what I mean-if you have them.The later ones had a tang on the side to allow insert to be replaced with crank in the engine .If the NAPA inserts are listed as fitting late 55 or 55 with tang type bearings or fit above the 1955 year they will not work in a 1954 block.