The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop 216 Babbet Pounder?

my 52 chevy 1/2 ton PU has a 53 216 engine does this make any sense? i was thinking since the truck does not have the 3100 emblem on the side of the hood and only has the chevy emblem. the truck is a 1952 1/2 and the motor is orginal or the previous owner put this engine in for some reason? any thoughts? another thing why is a 216 called a babbet pounder? is it a good engine? rare? thanks.

The 216s were updated ancient technology but they held their own against the competition. The main sticky point in a rebuild is rebuilding the rods. They came from the factory with a very thin layer of babbitt right on the cast iron inner surface. There are a lot of places that can do the old F O R D babbitting because it was much thicker, but rebabbitting these 216 rods is a very spcialized business.I had mine machined to take inserts and they worked out very nicely. The mains are of the insert variety. Every once in a while, reconditioned, rebabbitted rods turn up on Ebay. You can also buy them from major suppliers for major dollars.

The other thing, the cast iron pistons are a great strain on the bottom end because of the weight. I used a nice new set of aluminum pistons, bought on Ebay.

Rebabbiting rods is not terribly difficult, but it does take some special tooling that's just not available in most places. I've done the machining on babbit rods to accept insert-type bearings several times, and it eliminates the problem of fitting the bearings to the crankshaft after they're re-poured.

An old service manual I've got stashed away somewhere gives directions for fitting babbit bearings, and it involves bolting the bearings up dry, no oil, and spinning the engine with an electric motor until "heavy smoke comes from all the bearings"! This smears the babbit around the crankshaft. Then the crank is polished and the high spots in the bearing are scraped until there's a perfect fit with the crtankshaft, using Prussian Blue dye as an indicator. Once a perfect fit is established, shims are added between the connecting rod and cap to establish the correct running clearance. Setting up a babbit-rod engine correctly is a dying art! On the older ones with poured main bearings, the same procedure had to be done with the mains, also. After about 10,000 miles, some shims are removed to re-establish the oil clearance. Insert-type bearings are a lot simpler to service!
Jerry

Exactlly what Ralphy said .. plus ,, the 216 is easier to get better economy from than the 235.

Only problem with the 216 is the rods stretch easier than the 235 due to the poured babbit. The insert style bearings don't stretch as easily because the babbit is thinner and backed by steel.

The 235 head does have larger runners and flows better than the 216 head, which is an advantage if you want an engine to go faster. But if you have a good 216, run it, just don't drive it turning over 2,600 rpm for any length of time. It will last a long time.

One truly interesting thing that I discovered when I had my rods converted was the the parting line does not go through the exact center of the bore. What this means is the machining for the bearing locating tangs has to protrude past the parting line of the rod.