After spending a lot of last week chasing around town looking for an adaptor for my oil pressure gauge, and finding out that I did not need one, I finally got back to working on the engine.
I removed the oil passage plugs and used a gun barrel cleaner to clean all the passages . I used my pressure washer to clean everything with water and then oiled everything up , including the oil passages.
At this point, I have measured all the crank bearings a, rod bearings and main bearings. I ended up with two sets of main bearings, one .010″ and the other, .009″ under. To get the correct clearances on all my mains, I had to use bearings from both sets. The golden rule is, better too loose than too tight. All of them are between, .00325″ and .00425″. The spec. is, .003″ – .004″.
I panicked on my first main bearing measurement. I had the bearing cap on backwards. There is no arrow on my caps, just numbers, and I did not have the bearing tabs on the same side. The reading was .0025″! After I settled down and read my engine building guide, I found the problem.
As I said in my last post, I purchased one of those digital torque wrenches . Works great! You can set several torque values in and just punch a couple of buttons to go from one setting to the next one, such as when you torque the mains or head bolts in steps. I think it has 50 memory slots. Next, the cam and then the crankshaft.
July 12, 2021