Rods and last minute checks before putting the case together

From pcarworkshop

This article covers some measuring, the installation of the rods and a last check that the main bearings have good clearances.

The first part of this procedure is the installation of the rods onto the crankshaft. I started with washing the rod and the end cap with brake cleaner. Any of the surfaces are then washed down with isoproply alchol to make sure they are spick and span. I am using clean room wipes through the whole process ; one of my business partners is shutting down a company that had a clean room and tons of these little lint-free napkins...so I have been going through a bunch of them...

Here is a bearing shell fresh from the box. They are pretty simple and fit into the rod ends really nice. The surface again is wiped down with the alchol before any lube is added.

Oooooops, you caught me! I am using my bare hands, tstk tksk instead of sterile rubber gloves. Well, I actually did the entire crank with gloves but when I am trying to take pictures is harder so I just smeared the stuff on with my fingers ;-) Oh, its break-in lube to take the abuse before the oil flows really well on startup.

Here I am carefully sliding on the end cap onto the crankshaft.....

and then sliding on the rod so they are now connected. The two bolts are lubed up with the ARP moly lube and tightend/loosened three times at 35 ft-lbs torque.

Tightening the rod bolts up to torque. Like my fancy little torque wrench? Its one of my favorites and is good from 5 to 40 ft-lbs before I have to break out its bigger brother..

Now here is the right way to do it. I used the stretch specification from ARP for these rods which specifies a total rod bolt stretch of (0.0117 - 0.0122) inches. I pretty well set each and every rod bolt to 0.0120 stretch

Another shot with the stretch gauge on the crank to give you an overall idea. There are twelve bolts to check for stretch and torque. I found that the stock torque values are a bit lot to get the proper stretch as defined by ARP.

Ahhh, brand new bushings all fitted for the rods with the right clearances...

Time to check the bores in the case. I bolted the empty case together but could not resist a shot down the main bore of the case.

I pulled the main galley plugs out of the block to clean out the main oil passages. I drove in new plugs sealed with case sealer and then covered the plug with good 'ol JB Weld. Not the prettiest but who is going to look behind the clutch?

Using a bore guage to measure the bores. I hate these devices and there must be a better way (which I can't afford anyways). The bores checked out OK.

I double checked the main bearings on the crank with my 30 year old micrometer (with was checked a little while ago...its still bang on, gotta like the old stuff!).

As an extra double check I wanted to Plastigauge the main bearings (I did the rod bearings as well but did not have my camera on the ready). See the little green line...that is the plastigauge. You can see it in place but its not squished out yet...I coated the main bearings and the crank with a light coating of oil to make sure the wax based plasticgauge does not stick too bad to the bearings..

OK, bolt the block together again....notice my nice protective sleeves for the rods. ;-)

Ok, case all apart again (after an hour of work) and here is the plastigauge (see the small green line). You use the chart to read how wide the squeezed material is and it gives a relative clearance figure. My bearing clearance appears to be about 0.002 and its pretty consistant on all the main bearings which is good...

OK, the crank is back out and here are the brand-new bearings ready to go....

Links to Rebuild Tour

1. Getting started, dropping the engine and superficial stripdown
2. Checking the default timing and Cams
3. Looking at the heads and the SAI passages
4. Valve guides, valves and carbon
5. Further Dissassembly
6. Exploring the SAI passages
7. Cleaning and getting ready to put it all together again
8. Rods and last minute checks before putting the case together
9. Sealing the case (or tomb)
10. Putting the pistons/cylinders back
11. Camshaft timing Part I
12. Camshaft timing Part II
13. Messing up a clean looking engine
14. Not quite there
15. Cranking it up