way back my crank was tight also and I thought the clearances were good. My friend came over retorqued the mains, few taps back and forth with a brass mallet and bingo it turned. Sometimes where the crank journals are radiused the bearings are squeezing it to tight and need to be centered as he told me. If that makes sense to you.

 

yeah i think it might be touchin were the radius is on the thrust bearing. will try it tomorrow. dont have a brass hammer but a block of wood and a normal hammer should do just fine

 

well went out and put the main bearings back in and set the crank in. then set the main caps on. had just at .004 endplay before torquin any. torqued to 25 ft lbs. little harder to turn crank by hand. end play at like .003. torqued to 35 ft lbs. no endplay. hard to turn crank by hand. tired using a piece of wood 2x4 to tap on each side of the crank. didnt help. what should i do. ????? seriously considering sanding the sides of the thrust bearing a little bit. an engine blueprinting book says something about it. and also the how to rebuild a small block ford book says that same thing...WTF???? any other thoughts???

so now i dont know what the fuck to do.....

 

that sounds like the cap holding the thrust bearing isn't going on straight.

 

it looks like its fine. not really sure. any ideas on what i can or should do about it????

 

Might be time to take it to a professional.

Trust me I say that in the nicest way and dont mean to offend you.

At the very least maybe take the block, crank, and bearings down to the machine shop who did the machine work and show him whats going on. He might have an answer for you.

 

ok hers an update. i went back to the machine shop and talked with the guy there. he checked it out and said that it could be one of 2 things is causing the crank to bind when torquing it down. that the block was not line bored when they installed the main studs in the block, or that the crank could be bent a little. so i asked him how much that would cost to get it line bored. he said about 150 bucks. he asked me to take it home and set a dial indicator on the #3 main and turn the crank around to see if it could be bent. did that and the needle didnt even move.so he let me borrow another 302 block he had at the shop so that i could put my bearings and crank into it and see if the same thing happens. that will let me know if it the caps or not.

 

Well????

Anymore updates?

 

send it to bay city engine works they can figure out what ur doing wrong there is to much too diagnose it properly on the internet 8132471945

 

it was still a little tight in the other block. but it turned. so now im going to measure the crank and the mains with the bearing installed and see what the clearence is....