Is engine to tight?

[swing lo]

My rebuilt engine won't turn over with ease like it should. The mechanics say that i rebuilt the engine to tight. I followed the shop manual when it said to lube the cylinder walls before putting the pistons to the tee. I lubed the walls and assembled the block. When i tried to turn the motor by the crank pully, it was really hard to turn. The motor has never been started. One guy said that maybe the starter was so old that turning a new motor was hard for it. The mechanics put a little oil in the cylinders through the spark plug holes to see if it would help, but it didn't.

Anybody have any suggestions before i tear it back apart and redo it?


Only thing i can think to do now is take the oil pan off and go from there. And i'm thinking that maybe the rings need to be filed a bit.

 

[TD05HTalon]

what all did you have done to the engine?

I turned my engine over after each piece was added to ensure it was smooth. with just the crank, and bearings in with the main caps torqued down with ARP's it spun by hand. Once i put the pistons in it would still spin by hand but with a little more effort - still didn't need a wrench though.

Did you get the mains line bored? If they aren't perfectly round then it will grab a lot with new bearings since the journals aren't round. Eventually it will get looser when it starts eating the bearings up which is a very bad thing.

Same goes for your rod bearings - did you check the rods journals?

Are the piston to cylinder wall clearances in spec?

All 3 of those will make an engine not want to turn over smoothly and should be remedied before trying to start it up or bearing and piston damage will occur.

 

[rebuilt65]

what all did you have done to the engine?

I turned my engine over after each piece was added to ensure it was smooth. with just the crank, and bearings in with the main caps torqued down with ARP's it spun by hand. Once i put the pistons in it would still spin by hand but with a little more effort - still didn't need a wrench though.

Did you get the mains line bored? If they aren't perfectly round then it will grab a lot with new bearings since the journals aren't round. Eventually it will get looser when it starts eating the bearings up which is a very bad thing.

Same goes for your rod bearings - did you check the rods journals?

Are the piston to cylinder wall clearances in spec?

All 3 of those will make an engine not want to turn over smoothly and should be remedied before trying to start it up or bearing and piston damage will occur.

Agreed

A cap may be on the wrong journal.
1. Cam shaft caps are in the wrong position
2. Rod bearing caps in wrong positions
3. Main bearing caps( probably not)
The shop that overhauled my head gave it back to me with the cam shaft bearing caps on the wrong cam. When I started to torque the cams down, my engine became hard to turn. I was alert to potential problems, as that shop has done some shacky stuff in the past, so I prevented any permanent damage. Make sure that nothing is rubbing or binding. Loosen all bearing caps. Start with the cam caps first I guess.
Good Luck

 

[trbotaln]

If the all of the main caps are not in line, then the crankshaft will feel very tight. The solution to this problem is to have the caps line honed if they don't line up right.

 

[swing lo]

Thanks for some responses. This is my first engine build ever and i had the bottom end balanced, honed, and decked. The shop that sent my bottom end off said that the machine shop was good and that i didn't need to use plasti gauge and check clearences if the block was totally machined and i had new factory pistons. I built that motor according to haynes, and the chiltons manual to the tee( torque specs etc.). This weekend i hope by loosening the main caps that it will help. Somebody told me that it might be out of time, but i pretty much know that isn't the problem because i timed that thing like 40 times until i was comfortable with it. The engine seems to spin freely and start to seize up every turn and a half and then it spins freely again.