Congrats on the carb work! 😉 You are making good progress!!

I had some bearing knocks when I reassembled Lurch's engine in 2017 after a rebuild.

I found that plastigage was an indicator about the bearing gaps, but not a very good indicator. I went back to the process as described in the shop manual:

1. Take all the spark plugs out
2. Drain the engine oil and take off the oil pan
3. Loosen all the bearing caps so none of them are creating any drag on the crankshaft
4. Turn the engine over with the hand crank to get a feel for how the engine turns over
5. Start at the back and tighten one cap at a time, turn the engine over to feel if there's any drag, if there isn't any drag, take out a shim and check for drag again. When you finally encounter a slight drag with that particular bearing cap, space the cap out by inserting a .001 brass shim. The drag should disappear and then you move onto the next bearing cap.

You can read all about it here: https://vccachat.org/ubbthreads.php/topics/404082/re-resurrecting-a-28-4-banger.html#Post404082

Cheers, Dean

@rustoholic 

Thank you so much. It was my plan to use plastigage, but was advised not a good indicator with babbit bearings

Dean,

how did you remove the caps for the mains? Did you lift the engine at all, or did you have some special tools to access the cap bolts? The front, or no 1 cap in particular appears to be a real bugger. the no 2 or center main has interference with the oil pump. According to the shop manual, the engine needs to be lifted.

Also, did you find it necessary to remove the cam shaft, as the manual states?

Thanks,

Lou

I need to read more before I go to the keyboard! you took out the oil pump! I saw that the first time i read through this, and it went right over my head!

I answered this in the other topic you started about the crank bearings. Here's a link to it: https://vcca.org/community/postid/6385/

Cheers, Dean

@rustoholic yep, You did! As I said, I need to read more before I go keyboarding! I do appreciate all those who have replied to my questions. I just may be in over my head! My apologies for the redundant questions.

Lou