Critical juncture in ABA rebuild - frozen crank (WTF?)

[drew at scirocco.cs.uoguelph.ca (Drew)]

Apologies if this has been covered before, but STOP and inspect bearing
caps on #2 and #3.  Something is amiss - you should be able to turn the
engine over easily by hand with no head.  The friction of new rings on a
lightly oiled bore is not significant - certainly not to keep you from
spinning the engine with a wrench on the crank bolt.  Make sure you have
not mixed bearing caps (or more likely) installed one backwards - they
have a small lug on the front side of both the connecting rod and the
cap to indicate alignment, although you (should have) marked them when
you removed them too... :)

Drew



On Mon, 2004-04-26 at 21:59, Jeff Toomasson wrote:
> I've been on the precipice of tightening my crankshaft sprocket - so most of you can imagine how far I am into this saga.
> 
> A few days ago I tried to tighten the sprocket bolt and finally got the crank to turn when I was half way through my 90-degree additional turn. I thought this was odd, but just attributed it to the snug fit of the piston rings. But it still turned though so I wasn't worried. I just figured the rings needed to get seated and that would happen when I fired it up...
> 
> Today I went to tighten the sprocket bolt again prepared to brace the crank using a 2x4 (thanks for the tip, Ron!), but I could get it all the way through the 90-degree turn this time and then some!
> 
> The left side of my brain says somethings f*cked up in there and I need to tear it apart, but the right side says it's just the rings and they'll pop in once I start it (though that event isn't for 3-5 months!!).
> 
> I know either way it's the rings because the damn thing spun perfectly with little effort when only pistons 1 and 4 were installed. But is this something that's life-threatening?? (I think I know the answer but I need to hear it from someone else...)
> 
> Background:  I used a synthetic paint brush to coat the bores with 20w50 before installing the rods and pistons. All bearing surfaces received Redline Assembly Lube.
> 
> Thanks for any input - Jeff
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