How strong are the 20 R bearings ?? Tonight right before I pulled into work I lost the bolt that holds the alt tight. So I drove the 22 miles home w/ the alt. bouncing on the belt and bouncing against the crank. I am just curious as to what if any damage a 22 mile side load like that could do ??

I didn't even think it was going to make it home. I thought for sure the belt would have flown off. Especially on the freeway, doing 60 to 70 mph. But no, it made it all the way home bouncing all the way.

Kinda funny actually, you could hear the engine get bogged down and the alt light come on and then a clank and repeat, all the way home. So it lost the top bolt that holds tension. The belt stayed on just making it bounce araound.

The weight of the alt. gave it enough tension on the belt to make it spin, then it caught and spun it self into the side of the motor, and then the weight would pull it back down making it catch the belt again and it kicked back up, clang, back down, making the engine bog.
So do you think that kinda wieght and side load could do any damage.

Also since the water pump was not constantly turning I had a mild overheat. I say mild because it was raining all the way home. I don't have any functioning gauges so I don't know how hot it got but when I got home it was not steaming from the radiater, but the rad was gurgling. So it did probably reach the upper limits of say a functioning gauge.

My engine is going down for a rebuild, but a new crank is definatly not in the budget. Gaskets, bearings, oil and water pumps are in the budget, but a fubed crank is not

 

um you might want to get the head and block checked to make sure they are straight when you get it rebuilt. When you hear bubbling in the radiator like that it means the coolant is boiling when it hits the radiator. This is basically the same as when you see a car on the side of the road with steam coming out of it, there just wasnt enough coolant to make it out the top of the neck...

 

Ive gone through this situation before.
multiple times.

idk, the 22RE's block is too beastly for a wimpy alternator? lol