Grego92

iTrader: (4)

I have new pistons and rings, cylinders were honed - not bored so standard size, my crank was ground down to .010 on the mains and rods, so my bearings for both match the .010. The bearings and thrust washers are Taiho, the rings and pistons were an NPR kit. My rods were checked and the place where the bearings sit (both rod and cap) were honed. I'm using Clevite assembly lube and WD40 in the cylinders. I plastigaged using green stuff from Clevite. My rods and caps are facing the right direction with the bumps/marks facing toward the front.

The crank is put in, the mains are torqued and I can turn the crank by hand. Using a ring compressor I easily get the pistons in. BUT as soon as I torque the rods to 51 ft lbs I can no longer turn by hand. I can turn the crank by hand when they are just hand tight and not torqued. I know when I took the engine apart I could easily turn the crank with the rods and mains still torqued down. Are the new rings and hone causing this difficulty? Have I missed a step, or not reading my plastigage correctly and I have the wrong size bearings?

Bearing plastigage reads around .038 on all of them, am I reading this correctly?



The mains all read around the .0015 mark, is that correctly read?



three red boxes are the taiho bearings and thrust washer, the thrusts are standard size



the NPR ring sets, I put them on with "1N" at the top, then "2N", then the whatchamacallits (brain fart). I used a ring spreader/compressor so no problem getting them on.



the NPR piston box....the pistons had no stamping marks so who knows who made them, but this is the box they came in.

kdo58

when I did mine I would install a rod cap one at time with lube rotate the crank each time, then if i had a problem I would know where the problem was.

alltracman78

Freshly assembled engines don't always turn by hand at first.
Have you tried with a breaker bar/ratchet?
It shouldn't take loads of effort to turn it with that [if it does, stop, something is wrong], but sometimes it needs that to get everything seated correctly.

sixstringslut

My pro rebuilt Chevy 235 ($1500) was a real bear at first also. After 15-20 rev with breaker bar and pipe it started to loosen up.

Grego92

iTrader: (4)

Ok, so I put a bolt in the front of the crank and I can turn it with a 1/2" RATCHET and socket. I'm not using to much muscle, just seems stiff. I hope that's the way a rebuilt engine is suppose to feel. Thanks for the suggestions guys, maybe just paranoid since its my first full rebuild. Anyone else can confirm after rebuilding their 22RE?

92dlxman

i dunno from experience but im glad you brought this up for if i ever get the cajones to do it. . . . . . ..

if your plasti-guage says everything is fine i would trust it. . . . maybe try guaging several crank positions to be sure.

i would just blame a slight roughness on freshly honed cylinders with sharp new rings. . . . . . . . . . .START ER UP!!!!!

Grego92

iTrader: (4)

I'm just updating this post in case someone searches and finds this later about a stiff turning crank after rebuild. I now have over 8,000 miles on the fully rebuilt engine and it runs perfectly.

Marc

Good to know and thanks for the update.

Corey Allen

I just did my bottom end on my 22re also all 3 rods went in turned nice then put the last one in torch down 51 lbs wouldn't turn for sh..
come to find out my caps were numbered.
IDK if all are but they went 1,2,3,3 does that sound right to anyone. And the 2nd third cap looked to have beat marks on it from last guy I flat filed both sides a Lil bet torched it and boom Lil stiff but moves

Grego92

iTrader: (4)

Wow....been so long, 7 1/2 years since my rebuild and everything is just purring along. My memory of this is gone, so I don't think I can be of much help. I want to say since I had my crank ground down, those numbers on the caps really didn't matter anymore. If it plastigaged fine, then you should be fine.

Melrose 4r

I'm not sure if this helps or is what you are asking but the 1,2,3,3 on the caps are not the positions of the rods. They refer to clearances and I saw that info in a Haynes or other type of manual. Maybe it's in the Toyota FSM as well.