460 project

got the crank back from the machine shop. They turned down the mains to .030" and the rods to .040"

got new bearings from Summit

put it it back together. Torqued the caps to check the clearance. Plastigage said 0.0015" as per spec

pulled the caps and lubed everything up. Rotating assembly rotated smoothly. As I torqued down the caps in stages, it became harder to rotate by hand

now that the caps are at final torque, I can't rotate the assembly even with my largest breaker bar on the snout bolt.

is this to be expected, or is this a bad thing?

 

No, that's not to be expected and yes, that's a bad thing.
Did you by any chance get the caps mixed up or turned around?
Any chance of debris/dirt between the seat and the bearing or the bearing and the journal?

 

I Believe Mike is right on having your caps mixed,
in looking at your other thread on this matter
If you look at Pictures #4 and 15 it appears you have cap # 6 on connecting rod # 5 and in pic # 14 cap #7 on connecting rod 1

(maybe my coffee hasn't kicked in yet ) but in pic #3 to me your timing chain looks a 1 tooth off

and in putting the connecting rods and caps together "was there alot of bearing crush?"

 

The caps are reversed or backwards on the connecting rods

 

I appreciate the quick response thanks Mike...

Well, the mains are numbered and have arrows that point forward, so I feel good about those!

Unfortunately, in the week the crank was in the shop, the rod caps became "disorganized". I followed the pattern established by the mains of mating the notches, but they're very likely out of sequence.

I think the bearings and seats were very clean. I first cleaned them with a rag soaked in solvent (the seats-not the bearings), then a rag damp with brake cleaner as a degreaser. Another once-over with a clean, dry cloth before checking the clearances.

The Chilton calls for 0.0015" dry (sounds pretty tight to me, too) and that's what they measure

How might I determine the correct cap for each rod?

 

The pictures are telling you something my eyes didn't see! What do you see that determines the cap number?

 

If you can't sort them out.......going to have to take them back to the machine shop and have the big ends resized......

 

Just looked at your pics in the original post.....I can see it too......on the side of the rods, right by the split of the rod and cap.....there are stamped numbers......I saw one that was 5/6..........should match up the number on the cap with the number on the rod........

 

In the original factory assembly process they stamped both the connecting rod and cap with matching numbers also if and when they become "mixed and matched" or "turned around" a person runs the risk of the beveled side of the cap "binding" against the "fillet" on the crank
ie not matching the fillet on the crank, on the caps and connecting rods there is a "beveled" side and a "flat" side this is for the Fillet on the crank

 

another potential cause in binding could be from lack of play between the assembled connecting rod when installed, which is another reason to match them correctly.
(caps to rods)

 

First time that I looked at your other thread, now I see the pictures.
It does look like #5 & 6 conn rods have the rod caps switched. That could definitely be your problem.
All rods and caps should be stamped with matching numbers, just match the numbers up and be sure that both numbers are on the same side.
As for your cam being a tooth off, it looks okay to me.

 

Thanks everybody for the help! Yes, I had the caps in the wrong sequence. I looked hard at the caps and rods, and I can now see the stamped numbers. They're correct now, and the engine spins as expected.

Learning new stuff every day!

Thank you all!

 

Yeah, me too. Not a day goes by I don't learn something new. Whether I'll ever use it again is an unknown , but at least I learned.

 

And if by chance you ever intend to rebuild another engine and the rods and caps ARE NOT stamped (many are not), do so before disassembly.......will save issues down the road....just a good practice to get into when tearing a motor down!

 

When I did the 351m in the brown truck, I did mark all the caps with a number and an arrow. I don't know why I failed to do it this time. Senior moment, I guess