First, hey all been way too busy with life to do much work on my baby, but the time is upon me to get back at it....

Today I installed all my pistons with new rod bearings and crank. This was a fairly strightforward task, I would put in a piston turn the crank a few times, put in another piston turn the crank...til all 8 were done.

While the pistons were snug to the crank I could still rotate the crank with my breaker bar, but once I torqued all the pistons to 45 ft-lbs there was no way the crank would turn. If I take the torque out I can spin the crank all day. I am thinking that it is just the rebuild tighness that I am fighting and that all will be fine, however there is another part of me that doesn't want anymore downtime.

It is a 350 LT1 bored 30 over

Any insight would be appreciated

I am thinking you are calling the connecting rods 'pistons', as pistons will be pressed onto the rods and the rods will be torqued down to the rod journals on the crank...

I would take it back apart and check to see if you have oversize bearings trying to mate up with a crank that has not been ground, or if it has, it hasn't been machined to mate with those bearings.

AND.... Also I would check the radious on the crank and make sure that the rod bearing have enuff champher to clear the radious on the crank...
Please ...take apart to check for problems.
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Dan

Did you put the rods on the crank journals that they came off of and did you put them on in the correct direction? Not questioning your abilities, just bringing up potential problems tha could tighten your crank up.

You need to start over. Your crank to connecting rod clearance is off. You should have less than 45 ftlbs of resistance once all the pistons, rods, and crank is intalled.

Charles,
It sounds like you have the rods installed wrong. If it turned over ok with only one installed, it should be ok. The side of the rod that has the little slots in it for the bearing tankgs to fit in has to be facing the oil pan rail. If it is the other way around, the bearings will lock up on the crankshaft radius. I suggest you get someone who understands this to look at it for you before you damage something.

also while your at it make sure pistons are going the right way aswell

Did you measure bearing clearance with plastigauge?
What is the bearing clearance?

Yes my apologies...connecting rods. This is a test fit, by no means am I going to put this in and hope for the best..too much damn snow here anyway.

The bearings are the same as the ones that I removed (CB663P10 .10). It is interesting to note that if I use the old bearings I have the same issue. I will be taking it all apart again to double check the radius and to measure the clearance with some plastigage.

As far as I know the rods are in the right place, unfortunately I had shipped the block off to repair a damaged cylinder and was not present during the dissasembly process. All the pistons are dot facing to the front of the engine and the rods are matched up on the crank with the tapered side on the inside and the rod bearings are matched with the notched tabs facing each other. However I cannot say for certain they are all facing the oil pan rail, I will certainly check this.

Thanks guys will keep you posted on progress as always however hockey season may interrupt this :)

One other thing, get an engine bolt torque spec sheet or something b/c you DON'T want to over torque any of them or you will ruin them!

pdq67

Yes my apologies...connecting rods. This is a test fit, by no means am I going to put this in and hope for the best..too much damn snow here anyway.

The bearings are the same as the ones that I removed (CB663P10 .10). It is interesting to note that if I use the old bearings I have the same issue. I will be taking it all apart again to double check the radius and to measure the clearance with some plastigage.

As far as I know the rods are in the right place, unfortunately I had shipped the block off to repair a damaged cylinder and was not present during the dissasembly process. All the pistons are dot facing to the front of the engine and the rods are matched up on the crank with the tapered side on the inside and the rod bearings are matched with the notched tabs facing each other. However I cannot say for certain they are all facing the oil pan rail, I will certainly check this.

Thanks guys will keep you posted on progress as always however hockey season may interrupt this :)

if by this you mean the chamfered side of each rod facing the rod next to it, then that's the problem. The chamfered edges go away from each other for each pair of rods on a crank journal. The chamfer has to be against the crank journal edges, not against the rod next to it. The bearing tangs facing the outside of the block on each side would accomplish the same thing, to guarantee the proper orientation of the chamfered edges of the rods to match the edges of the crank journals.

Jody

We measure and plastgauge then torque crank
THEN install pistins rods
Have u zeroed/recalbrated the torque wrench? to KNOW it is reading correct?
I would never re use shells..no matter how little use they have had.

Don't think that anyone else has mentioned it but check your main caps. Make sure they are all in the correct places and facing the correct direction.

If even one main cap is facing the wrong direction it can destroy your clearence and make the crank not want to rotate easily