Bearing clearances and roller vs linked chain 5.7

[lr3guyjoe]

So I picked up a truck motor to replace a locked up engine on a project I have. It’s a 97 vortec 5.7. The truck motor had 170k on it. Im going to reseal it with a gasket set and putting new rod/main bearings and a new oil pump in.

The old bearings are not terrible but they do have a few bright/polished spots on them. I ordered a standard set and did a test fit with plasti-gauge (I know it’s not the most ideal way to check but it’s what I’ve got) and I’m coming up with .0015in on the rods and somewhere between .0015 and .002 on the mains. That seemed a little tight so I put the old ones in and got pretty similar measurements. I also did the locked up motor. (Bottom end is good) and got pretty similar readings maybe slightly closer to .002 on everything.
I’m guessing this is okay?

The motor from the boat had a roller chain and the truck motor has a linked chain. I was going to replace it while I had it out. Is there any advantage to the roller chain?

 

[76SeaRay]

I have a vortec truck block build up as well from a 1995. I put in a double roller chain, roller cam/lifters and roller tip rockers. I did not put in roller rockers. I put in the roller chain since I was upgrading to roller elsewhere to slightly improve performance. The roller chain is theoretically stronger and longer life than link. Double rollers over single rollers are often used with higher cam lifts (mine is slightly higher Comp Cam Xtreme Marine). I am not sure about single roller but double roller on some blocks in that time frame require you to grind away a little bit of the boss at the top of the cam area to provide clearance on the double roller. I had to do that but it wasn't a big deal to do.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Roller chain is better than a link chain