I started on my 1959 English Ford Anglia because it crapped out and I had spent ALL my money on buying the
damned thing. The first engine bigger than a Briggs or Clinton one lunger that I overhauled. I had to learn
to pour and scrape babbitted rod and main bearings. And when took the crank, beat .030 out of round by
the rod when it ran out the bearing, to the auto machine shop to get an estimate to regrind the crank.....
$100. I had paid $75 for the car, and that was all I had. So, I poured a rod bearing and embedded coarse valve
grinding compound into it and started rocking it back and forth. After it quit cutting, I reloaded the abrasive,
and snugged up the con rod and started rocking it back and forth again. In the winter, in an old washing shed
that was my workshop. Heated with a small fire in a #10 can. Plenty of leaks so it was CO safe. Once I got
the journal within .003" of round, I switched to fine grit and took it to 0,0015" out of round, which met the specs
on the engine. Then I polished it with strips of 600 grit wet or dry until it looked as smooth as the other journals.
Then melted out the abrasive packed babbit, poured a new bearing and scraped it.
It ran fine after that. The motor was a mirror image, about 1/2 scale copy of the Model A motor, I have been told.
Both were Fords, so may have been true.
All my engine work after that was easy-peasy. They invented prefitted thinwall bearing inserts....
.and if you can
read plastigage you can install them.
I was 16 when I did that first engine, turned 17 before it was done. Learned about Prussian blue, scraping to fit,
running a mic and a whole lot more. It helped to have a neighbor who had been a machinist in the US Army and
had recently gotten out to advise me.
Ultimately, they are all pretty much the same, really. Different details and the tech keeps changing, but not too bad.
Bill