98 Jeep help!

[Damian]

I finally took the Jeep engine in to get all the machine work done, along with the crank to get machined as well. Im trying to assemble everything but Ive ran into some problems. The first one was the main bearings they got me were the wrong ones, that's taken care of. The second is the rod bearings. Since they took material off of the crank, I need undersized bearings (0.010" to be exact), they gave me oversized bearings (Clevite). So when I torqued down the rod bolts to 33ft lbs, I couldn't spin the crank at all, and that's with the main bearing bolts still loose. So I went to the parts store and got the 0.010" undersized bearings (Sealed Power) and it still does the same thing! Everything is very well lubed, so that's not the issue. Am I doing something wrong here? I torqued them down with 2 different torque wrenches and nothing changed.

[94cobra69ss396]

Do you know how much they took off the rod journal on the crank? I'd mic it to see.

[Vettezuki]

Just thinking out loud. There is friction happening in the cylinder bore too. Are the cylinder walls lubed?

[94cobra69ss396]

The friction from ring tension is minimal. I can turn a crank with my hands until I get above five pistons in.

[Damian]

I can easily spin everything if everything is loose. I was talking to my neighbor last night, he thinks the mains were machine 0.010" and not the rod ends. He thinks they weir just polished and not machined, which makes sense since torquing the down locks them up.

[Shaolin Crane]

Bearings out of the box, even if they are the "sized" bearings won't be the right size every time, gotta mic each journal and order the right bearings, the go in iincriminates and have different crush rates too, for instance .010 .0105 .011 And the part number determines if there is extra crush too, make sure to rod bearing are the right width ones and not installed backwards, they will press together sidways when torqued, first things first, mic that bitch.

I also hear you can use cardboard as bearings :rolleyes:

[kdracer73]

Mic the journals and see if they are stock...Like Shaolin said, at Toyota, bearings came in 0.010 , 0.010A , 0.010B , 0.10C , 0.010D, 0.020, 0.020A....etc etc...

[Damian]

From what Ive found, mine come on 0.010" increments. My neighbor is gonna let me borrow his mic tomorrow, so Ill know then. Paul, would you happen to know what the factory spec is for the rod journals? Ill look in the Chilton manual again, but I don't recall it saying, could have missed it though.

[Shaolin Crane]

From what Ive found, mine come on 0.010" increments. My neighbor is gonna let me borrow his mic tomorrow, so Ill know then. Paul, would you happen to know what the factory spec is for the rod journals? Ill look in the Chilton manual again, but I don't recall it saying, could have missed it though.

All brand bearings are like this, yours use standard SBC bearings, so they will be offered the same, and just because the size listed on the box is so, doesn't mean the bearing inside will be. I usually buy the bearings first to make sure its all machined to them, less hassle this way.

[Damian]

I measured them and they are standard sized rod journals. Picked up some standard sized bearings and everything spins great.