Crank not spinning with new bearings

[mattaltima99]

I just got new Beck Arnley rod and main bearings and i havnt installed the pistons and rods at all... after lubbing the mains and torquin them down to 25 ft lbs the crank will not budge. its not even budging with a breaker bar and two people that are 140 pounds each putting all their weight on to it..... All of the bearings say they are STD and the crank was polished at the machine shop. when putting in the main cap (its a girdle) it takes some time lining every bolt whole up because one bolt will have some roughness to it as its going in so i knock the cap back and forth till everybolt goes in. Should the girdle be that hard to get in and line up???? The crank and girdle came out of and overheated motor and are both being put in a excellent condition DE block that has been honed. Could the crank and girdle be f#$%&d up from the overheated block??? Should i just go ahead and get the crank cut to .25 and get oversized .25 bearings and just redue the mains? And also if i did that i shouldnt have to mess with getting the rod bearings changed out or cut right?? PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!! Thanks!

[darens13]

sounds like its warped, or i dont know if you can put the girdle in backwards, but i know if you put caps in backwards it will cause the same thing.

[mattaltima99]

Well it spins freely without any like pulsing at 15 ft lbs. and im putting the girdle in by following the fsm so it cant be backwards. but the crank has some little black like smudges on it for the main bearings and you can kinda feel them with ur finger nail so im going to see if i can just get it polished a couple of times and get those spots off to see if that stops the prob. Wouldnt it have some pusling in it if it was warped? Thanks for the reply

[LaughingBull]

Before tightening the girdle down did you pry on the crank to make sure its seated correctly? Or before tightening, tap both ends of the crankshaft with a rubber mallet or a hammer and piece of wood. You'll want to do this this with the bolts loosely threaded, after you should be able to finger tighten without any resistance. Make sure the bolt threads are lightly oiled as well as the bottom of the head, this will help with getting the correct torque. As far as warped use a straight edge and see if it is, the crank could be warped as well, but I would think the machine shop woulda checked this. Even with pistons installed you should be able to turn by hand.

[mattaltima99]

Ok Thanks im going to take the crank back to the machine shop to get double checked and ill check the block. Thanks for the reply

[neverlift]

what does the plasti gauge show at 25ft lbs?

in a perfect rebuild/build a well lubed and installed crankshaft should spin relatively free, it shouldnt ride the bearings so much as the lubricant between the bearings and crank, save for piston ring drag.(short block no head)

really sounds like something is twisted.

[mattaltima99]

Yeah idk yet. i took it the machine shop here in town to have someone smarter than me check the all of the clearences bcuz my guess would be either that the crank is warped or the girdle cuz i couldnt imagine this block having a prob bcuz its hardly been used at all. And the plasti gauge readings werent really accurate or easily made out to read.