crank stiffness

[the executive]

hey guys i'm in the middle of rebuilding my 3.8 and just want to know if its normal for crank to be really tight after installin new bearings and seals? any other info or advice would be appreciated oh and just to add yes i did fill journals with oil upon installing also if any1 from geelong has a ring compressor or sucky stick to grind my valve i can borrow for the day let me know please cheers

[Reaper]

It should rotate smoothly. If it's grabbing or particularly stiff something is wrong. Did you re-size the bearings or something?

Ring compressors are around $15 from autobarn. Not going to last forever but should hold together for a few engine rebuilds.

Reaper

[KnobMuffin]

Does it have all the pistons on? You should use plasti-guage to measure the clearance between the bearing and journal. Have you used micrometers and straight edge/feeler gauge to measure your journals and crank bearings?

[strgas]

it should be tight to a point that you dont need a six foot pole to turn it over , a good push on a sidchrome ratchet and socket should be all you need .. did the bearings come cover in rust preventive coating or a sealed bag .. seen acouple of guys install the bearing with the coating still on them and the engine didnt rotate to well at all , did you use a rope seal for the rear main ???

[Sabbath']

Got all the bearing caps round the right way?

[the executive]

everthing was done by the wat book says bearings are standard and came in plastic wrap with my acl kit, i bought the tools i needed from repco they had'em on special, can rotate crank by hand but it is pretty tight

[the executive]

and yes rope for rear main

[Pub247]

did you soak the seal before install?? ropewill be tighter than a neoprene one but it should turn by hand easy
as said above are the caps in right order and around the right way?
Did you check your end float is right??

was the crank linished before install?

[the executive]

rope seal didnt get oil, everything else seems ok. bearings do have a grey coating which i didnt clean off

[greenfoam]

Was the backside of the bearings clean without oil?, that's enough to make them too tight

[the executive]

well i removed all caps and bearings oiled rope seal, cleaned all bearings and removed coating its not as tight now i can actually rotate it with 1 finger on the rachet still with abit of force but before it was 2 finger and a heap of force so it is better hopefully good enough...

[Pub247]

yep sounds alright now. i hope you atleast put some oil or moly grease between bearings and crank

[delcowizzid]

when you say you removed the grey coating you dont mean the soft metal that protects the crank do you LOL the bearings are meant to be gray

[VNracer34G]

yep sounds alright now. i hope you atleast put some oil or moly grease between bearings and crank

In full agreement there, the dog turd style rear main seals are a lot tighter than the neoprene one peice jobbies, i always dummy up the crank without the seal first to see how it spins to pick up on any misalignment of the tunnels or twist in the crank then pull it out again and fit the seal.