Where to get good engine bearings

[alaskanrider]

Hey,
New to the forum! And I have a question.

Girlfriends 4.1 has a bad rod bearing, its not terrible yet, but its getting worse. I would rather fix this sooner than later. Right now its just noisy on cold starts as the oil pressure builds, and vanishes once the oil pressure light turns off.

I popped the cap off of a couple rods and the bearing looks pretty ****ty. I think the previous owner probably ran it out of oil, or never changed the oil. Its a sad fate for a 3SFE. Im sure it would be in fantastic shape right now if it was only properly cared for.

Where can I get good toyota bearings? I dont want to pay for OEM, but so far they are the only ones who supply properly sized bearings. Napa and Shucks sell Sealed Power, which I have no issue with as a brand. But they come as a set, and 1 size.

Our ravs have at least 3 different sized rod bearings from toyota, and I havent been able to find half step sizes from any aftermarket manufacturers. All they have is .01 under, and .02 under.

Is there any cheap option?? Or am I stuck paying 500% of what it should cost for toyota parts?

[hd72m]

With many many 4.1 RAV4s on here with 250,000mi OEM parts are the way to go.

[Pim]

You can call the things Toyota sells the highest price but they are not.
Toyota does go to a long length to provide with the highest standard in quality tough. So their items will last for a very decent time what cannot always be said from aftermarket items.
Yes, it costs more, but from my perspective is worth it.

And as you said: proper maintenance will make the car last so much longer. Quite a few RAV4 have done over 300K miles on the first engine. Not any brand can make that claim.

And beside that, if you take the perspective of cost per mile for each item, i am 100% sure that Toyota's OEM items will take the upper hand over after-market items.
Greetz

Pim

[Batman722]

The bearings are sized to the crank and caps. You could go a step higher or smaller but you have to know what size you have. If the bearings are scored then you might need the crank machined because it's probably out of round which might cause whatever bearing you put in there to spin and knock. I would also look at the strainer and pump because these motors do get clogged up without good maintenance.
Just having the crank machined with the shop supplying new (sized) bearings then you're already looking at around $300 or so (in my area).
It all depends on how much you want to do and how much $ you want to spend. You sound like you know what you're doing, IMO if the bearings look that bad then you know there are other things that are probably bad also. If it was run without oil or low then I'd be concerned about the cylinders being scored and needing new rings.

[Dr. Dyno]

Don't know if you can get it done this way, but if so I'd get the bad journal(s) machined, buy Toyota bearings for it or them, and use an aftermarket set for the rest.

[alaskanrider]

Looks like King, ACL, sealed power and altrom only offer 1 standard size, and no half step sizes for our motors. Probably going to need toyota bearings for a good fit. Bummer, its such a common engine! I had hoped there would be better parts availability.

I can't even find connecting rod bolts on the toyota OEM sites. I feel as if im fighting an uphill battle, like Im just meant to break it and throw it away, then buy a whole new engine. Would much rather spend 500$ now then 2,500$ later.

What sites do you guys get your parts from? We have a toyota dealership, but their pretty steep, and will need to order the parts anyway.

Im not that worried about aftermarket quality. I helped build a couple STI engines, and the first engine grenaded its pistons. The ACL bearings we used looked really good after 30,000 miles, especially considering that the engine was pushing 480 WHP and revved to 8,000 rpm on a regular basis.

Thanks for the replies.

[Ken Allistone]

Try Rockauto.com, looks like they have standard size Clevite bearings,
Good luck!