Honda GX engine - GREASE??!!

[Craggy]

Hi all,
I bought an old Honda GX110 4-stroke engine, and I'm in the middle of stripping it down, and cleaning it up etc. I drained the oil and removed the crank cover, and cleaned out the inside with petrol. I am going to put it all back together soon, but I realise that I don't have any kind of grease. Do I need any?
Specifically, I was wondering about greasing the bearings for the crankshaft, but I've been told not to, as they're lubricated by the engine oil. But I don't know.
I've read different things regarding greasing the bearings, and I'm now left confused.
So if anyone could point me in the right direction, I'd be very grateful.

TL;DR - do I need grease, and if so: what grease and where do I put it (bearings??)?
Thanks in advance,
Craggy

 

[Whitetrashrocker]

Grease is for wheel bearings.

Use motor oil when assembling an engine. The internals get lubed from splash. Just give the bearings and any moving parts a squirt as you close it up. Should be fine.

 

[Craggy]

Thanks for replying!
So I don't need any grease anywhere in the engine itself? I heard something about "assembly grease". Is that anything I need to bother about? Or literally *just* a good coat of engine oil on everything?

 

[Whitetrashrocker]

Assembly grease is kinda like thick sticky oil. It's used cause it will linger around long enough till the oil pump can get oil to all the passages in the block.
This is alot simpler than a V8 so it's not really nesesary. I'd put some oil on the cam and tappers where they make contact and on the ends of the push rods give the rocker pivots and such a squirt, anything's that needs it.
You can use a little vasolene if you need to have a part held in place or something of that nature.

 

[Craggy]

Alright - so no worries then! I'll just make sure to give all the moving/rubbing components a good dash of oil when I put it back together.

Thanks!!

Only one thing: what do you mean by 'tappers'? Is that the actual cams on the camshaft that push against the followers?

 

[Whitetrashrocker]

Tappet. Spellcheck is drunk again.

Yes the doodad the cam pushes on.

 

[Craggy]

Cool!
Thanks for all the help!

 

[Whitetrashrocker]

 

[KartFab]

crankcase bearing seals (there are two of them, one on the pto side and one on the flywheel side of the engine, those little rubber circular thingees?) require grease on the inner lip. Ive gotten new seals that came pre-greased, and most of the old seals still had grease in them. Where I had to grease them, just a tiny bit will do, and i just use synthetic green grease from autozone. That stuff is LEGIT. IIRC i think they have white lithium grease in them?

 

[Hellion]

If you tear an engine down and reassemble or build one from the bottom up, it is customary to use "assembly lube" on all the moving/rotating parts because those parts will be devoid of lubrication and you will have a "dry start" condition on start-up.

Engines already in use have their internals bathed in oil but when you disassemble one, you're typically wiping everything clean and starting over.

Assembly lube is also a good idea when you're building/rebuilding an engine and will set it aside for some time until it is used again. Assembly lube as already mentioned is stickier than fresh motor oil and clings to dormant engine parts very well.

But fresh engine oil, the kind you will use in the crankcase, is just as good.... for immediate use.

 

[Craggy]

crankcase bearing seals (there are two of them, one on the pto side and one on the flywheel side of the engine, those little rubber circular thingees?) require grease on the inner lip. Ive gotten new seals that came pre-greased, and most of the old seals still had grease in them. Where I had to grease them, just a tiny bit will do, and i just use synthetic green grease from autozone. That stuff is LEGIT. IIRC i think they have white lithium grease in them?

I haven't actually removed the bearings/bearing seals, and I wasn't going to, so do I still need to re-grease them? I did wash out the case with petrol, but I don't know if that'll have washed away the grease (if there was any in there anyway).

If you tear an engine down and reassemble or build one from the bottom up, it is customary to use "assembly lube" on all the moving/rotating parts because those parts will be devoid of lubrication and you will have a "dry start" condition on start-up.

Engines already in use have their internals bathed in oil but when you disassemble one, you're typically wiping everything clean and starting over.

Assembly lube is also a good idea when you're building/rebuilding an engine and will set it aside for some time until it is used again. Assembly lube as already mentioned is stickier than fresh motor oil and clings to dormant engine parts very well.

But fresh engine oil, the kind you will use in the crankcase, is just as good.... for immediate use.

So it's BEST to use assembly lube, but since I will probably be using my engine as soon as it's built, I would be OK to just use normal engine oil. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks everyone!

 

[Hellion]

Right. BEST to use assembly lube, but people have gotten by for decades just using engine oil. Assembly lube is just a 'pro' thing used in high tolerance, high stress, high cost applications by necessity and in lesser situations by hobbyists and amateurs.

Heck, you can use NOTHING and probably cause no real harm. Oil will flow to all the bearings, bushings, cam lobes, tappets, connecting rod journals, etc. soon enough.

 

[Craggy]

Alrighty then - normal oil it is!

 

[B_Bimmer]

Tappet. Spellcheck is drunk again.

So that's the problem I always have... I thought she was just getting revenge because I always buy her the cheap stuff.