Dio no happy,,,
Things were goin’ SOOooo good. Crankshaft torqued to spec, still cranked over by hand and starter, go ahead and put oil pump and splatter plate in, still cranked over,,,
Put on oil pan, fully installed the flywheel (had only three bolts on it for checking crankover, and had to be removed to install the pan and rearmain seal,
NO CRANKS,,,
W! T! E! L! F!!!!
WElllssss,,,,,,
It was warming up outside and Dad wanted to air the basement out a bit. That outside temp is15-20 cooler than in,,,
and the block got cold. I was actually enjoying the drop in temp as I was working up a sweat inside. BUT, I hadn’t contemplated how that drop would effect the block: more specifically, that Assembly lube I used,,, That shit thickened up and while the engine is NOT LOCKED UP, I can turn it, with an incredible amount of OOOMPPHHHH!! I even pulled some out of the tube between fingers,,, its REALLY thickened up even there.
And we verified this by draining out the oil I had put in, trying to lube the block with fresh and push that lube out. (Had an old Distributor that I sacrificed to make a drive link to the oil pump. That little endeavor took about an hour to pull it apart and chuck in the lathe to cut the gears off.) That seemed to ease up the preload some. Then drain it, put in an old soup pot and heat over dads Propane stove he uses for melting beeswax. Got the oil to around 250, poured it back in and ran the oil pump again. ( could hear the lifters fill up and engage,,, kinda cool) Did that for about 5 minutes and yes, the preload eased off even more, only to be right back on, as the oil was cooled by that cold block.
Called it at that… Went to the J.O.B. shop, grabbed up my little space heater that I use to keep my hood from fogging up on cold days, came back and set that up blowing on that flywheel,,,, Heat the flywheel, heat the cranshaft, and MAYBE warm that GOOP up some and can flush it clear with the oil pump in the AM.
Yes, it was a hot battery, yes, I have the battery on a charger even as I write this. And MOST DEFINITELY do I have my fingers crossed that my thinking is correct,, ‘Cause I really DO NOT WANT TO PULL ALL THAT SHIT BACK APART TO CLEAR OFF THE GOOP.
BUT, For my future reference, I will NOT be using assembly lube anymore,,, I think straight 10w30 or Autotrans fluid would have sufficed and not bound my shit up.
9 hours today,,, and 6 of them have been trying to get that engine loosened back up to where it was this morning after I torqued things tight. NOTE, AFTER I torqued things tight,,, It was still able to be turned over by hand and starter at that stage. I can’t see how putting on a flywheel would “Bind her up”,,, I just can not see how putting on that oil pan bound anything up,,, It doesn’t bolt to the bearings,,, The only place it does meet up is at the timing cover and the housing of the rear main seal. I also didn’t see any interference betweent the flywheel and the block (and it DOES move smoothly, but only under incredible amounts of force.)
time for shower and make me a dinner,,, let the overnight with the space heater warm the whole damned block up to above ambient and ‘Will see’. If’n I gotta, I will pull it all back apart and clean all that crap off and use oil instead.
just don’t wanna,,, Hates doin’ shit twice, especially that torque sequence ‘in vehicle’,,, that sorta sucked,,, ok, not Sorta,, It DID suck,,, But I did it and don’t wanna again,,,
more laters, like tomorrow: hopefully with better news of PROGRESS,,,
I do have the transmission on the jack, (under twuck, in tunnel.) and I was going to install it today; Until I realized the engine felt locked up,,, Assuming that I can get things free tomorrow, getting the rest should be ‘easy’ compared to todays trials.
L,L,L,L,L!
(, ‘)
(and b4 asks, no, I did NOT put the sparkplugs back in yet. This is NOT a compression issue.)
(note: the few times I have done engine rebuilds, I used Lubriplate 105. I couldn’t find any locally, so bought something else.)
Dio's Workshop 
I’m sure you’re already aware, but when she’s warned up and you give ‘er another try – and then get ‘er fired up, that thing needs to be run at a bit over idle so the oil stays pressurized enuf to keep flowing good. All that assembly lube will dissolve, and it’ll need an immediate oil change – again – to make sure she’s got fresh uncontaminated oil.
That oil pump driver you made is an excellent idea (although all the distributors that I’ve seen have a very small pin that holds that gear on – drive it out, and you got an oil pump driver with no gear in the way)! I’ve still got the one I made back in the stone age – from a rod with a flat end that just happened to fit the pumps drive shaft slot near perfect. No freakin idea where that rod came from, or what it’s original purpose was, either.
It’s definitely sumthin that Mikee hasn’t run across before – then again, it don’t get that frigid ’round these parts, either! Hatez that yer having these setbacks! I know how it is to get one back together, and then have problems.
Gotz to take the pooch out, be back later.
Y’all take care,
Mike in FLA.
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December 14, 2025 at 7:45 am
I cut the teeth off the gear so it lines up right without my needing to be a contortionist looking down a tiny hole. Works a treat and I don’t have to guess. that’uns goin’ in the tool box for “jestincase” future.
Yeah, I know that she’ll need ran for about an hour to fully flush all that goop out, and the oil change after,,, The company that made this stuff says otherwise, but with all the fun I am having with it, I ain’t takin’ their word for shit. Never again,,, unless its a gear box or something with a LOT of slop inside. Not this 0.001″ clearance stuff.
If need be, I recalled I have a hotplate down at Da’s. I bought it for warming up parts when machining, and it’s been sitting doin’ nuthin for years. I’ll put that under the pan and warm that oil up in the pan instead of the shifting things around like we did yesterday. That, and the rising heat should do the trick,,, Fingers and toes crossed. That shit was really tacky when I checked the tube yesterday, and it was only 50F. Hope getting the block and oil to 100 will do the trick.
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December 14, 2025 at 7:52 am
All good idears. I’m with ya on that lube sayin’ ya don’t hafta change the earl afterwards, but that’s just a CYA note fer ’em!
I just didn’t wanna use a distributor for an oil primer.
A buncha us shadetree types😉 usta use a homemade concoction of some fresh earl and STP for assembly when we were really operating on a shoestring.
5 L’s!
Y’all take care,
Mike in FLA.
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December 14, 2025 at 8:47 am
Pulling it apart now. No love from heat. 🤬🤬🤬
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December 14, 2025 at 9:28 am
Audit your torque wrench. Years ago I had an issue with an intake manifold not sealing properly. Turned out my torque wrench had failed, but not completely… And check the straightness of the crankshaft. Some ham-handed idiot could have dropped it, or put it under something heavy enough to bend it a few thousandths. Murphy was an optimist.
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December 14, 2025 at 10:28 am
Damned good point as some of these bolts came loose easy, otbers fought. My torque wrench (the 1/2″ one) may be shit-ified. My 3/8″ seems fine, but its digital (what I used on the rod ends)
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December 14, 2025 at 12:29 pm
Yah, i’d not destroy a good one. This was one i had replaced with new in an older hicle.
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December 14, 2025 at 12:26 pm