Finished!! Forged piston block, Custom valve head (flowbenched)

[turbovanman]

Well like I said, go buy a cheap micrometer and you can see instantly if the crank is ground wrong, then you can either swear like a sailor or cuss badly.

[Ondonti]

any advice on a place to do that?

[turbovanman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ondonti any advice on a place to do that?

A cheap micrometer, we have places like Princess Auto, Machine Shops etc. You should be able to find one for under $40.

[Ondonti]

Edit: my assumptions in this post are not correct.
Well i dropped the girdle and looks like the main bearings are fine......just a little oil starvation.

Now Im not quite sure whats going on.

Im gonna plastigauge them to make sure the mains were not ground .010".
From this picture i sorta get the idea that there is NO way the mains were ground .010" or the mains would have been hammered.

[Ondonti]

I was thinking those weird skips in the bearing wear are probably from the crank flopping around at low rpms. The mains would have been hammered if I ran it longer on high rpms.

Well I just used green plastigauge (.001-.003") which should work for stock clearances, and I got nothing.

Im gonna try the blue stuff now......then Ill know if these mains are +.010".

[turbovanman]

It looks like the mains are .010 under thats why it won't read. That would also explain the lack of oil pressure.

[Ondonti]

Well I think this tells the story quite well.
Time for some larger mains.

Simon, Im gonna try just throwing in a non worn bearing in the rod that was wearing on one side and see if the plastiguage shows any differences side to side.

Im less worried now that I know the main bearings were too small.

[turbovanman]

Yeah, I'd say you found your problem. Thats why I always check bearing clearances when putting an engine together. I have seen what happened to you a few times by flat rate mechanics and it sucks ass.

[Ondonti]

well Im gonna need a micrometer for that rod journal.

I tried plastigauging it and well that didnt work out so great.

[Tim_K]

What did you have, a 10 under crank and standard size main & rod bearings?

So much for the "awesome" machine shop that can do no wrong.

How are the crankshaft bearing surfaces? Still smooth or do they need polished again?

[Ondonti]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tim_K What did you have, a 10 under crank and standard size main & rod bearings? So much for the "awesome" machine shop that can do no wrong. How are the crankshaft bearing surfaces? Still smooth or do they need polished again?

Did you read any of this?
There was no problem with the rod bearings size.........there was a miscommunication regarding the main bearings.

If I had ignored that and just looked at the crank where it says "10/10" I would have been fine.

The one issue is to see if there is a problem with rod journal #4. I think there might be but Im not sure yet.

[Tim_K]

I read it but it started getting confusing after a while. I was tired at the time too.

The rod bearing with the side damage looks like a bent rod to me. I doubt the machine shop would screw up a journal that bad, but it is possible.

[Ondonti]

maybe it could be a bent rod. I hope that isnt true. Seems pretty rediculous if they just resized the rod.

Im thinking I might try plastigauging the crank journal using a "loose" rod i have in my room. Then I can see if I get a clear plastigauge reading not using the possibly bent (not proven) rod.

[XR Tuner]

Resizing a rod makes sure the bottom is round but doesn't assure that it is parallel to the wrist pin hole. Usually they don't check for a bent rod unless you ask them. The machine shop should have equipment to make sure the rod is straight.
Unless I have dealt with a machine shop for a long time and really trust them I would check everything they do. Should have used plastigage in the first place,would have saved a lot of trouble.
One question? Why did you run the moter if you had low oil pressure. If I couldn't get oil pressure turning it over with the starter,I would never have started it. Did you ever get a decent oil pressure gauge.

[Ondonti]

Quote:

Originally Posted by XR Tuner Resizing a rod makes sure the bottom is round but doesn't assure that it is parallel to the wrist pin hole. Usually they don't check for a bent rod unless you ask them. The machine shop should have equipment to make sure the rod is straight. Unless I have dealt with a machine shop for a long time and really trust them I would check everything they do. Should have used plastigage in the first place,would have saved a lot of trouble. One question? Why did you run the moter if you had low oil pressure. If I couldn't get oil pressure turning it over with the starter,I would never have started it. Did you ever get a decent oil pressure gauge.

I never said that.

Motor never started till I got oil pressure. The motor turned over for a LONG time before it got pressure. That seems to have caused some damage.

Then when it started up it had good oil pressure......once the oil warmed up oil pressure dropped, but I was not hawking over the gauge because I had no reason to believe this would be an issue.