VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 Cranking effort in newly refitted '30 engine

If you have been following my recent posts, I have now completed tightening up the bottom of my '30 engine and have the dippers on facing correctly! Took about 2 thou of shims on average from the 3-bearings and from all 6 connrods (some a bit more than others). Cleaned out all the various channels above the bearings, and cleaned up the oil distributor, lines and oil pump screen.

The biggest challenge has been getting the clearance as close to desired spec as possible while still keeping the engine able to be hand cranked when all 9 spots have been torqued to spec.(Nuts/bolts torqued, not pinned yet). Finished this today, and it does take a fair effort to turn the hand crank, even with the plugs out. Starting from nothing, takes a good pull to get things rotating, but once moving, I can rotate 360 degrees with perhaps 70-80 ft/lbs of effort (no way to measure this, just the feel on the 9" hand crank).

So now the questions?
1. Is it expected that when freshly tightened the engine will be pretty stiff to turn over such as described? Or does it sound perhaps too tight?
2. I am thinking of seeing if it will turn with the electric starter before I put the oil pan back on and the plugs in, just touch the starter pedal and perhaps let it rotate a turn or so. Any issues with that, I put lots of good oil on each journal as I refitted them.
3. Assuming I get OK answers/results from ?1&2, any tips for installing the oil pan from under car sitting on axle stands? Should I fill dipper troughs before installing? Thanks as usual.

It should turn over with the starter with the plugs in but perhaps a bit slower than before.
If it dosen't I would loosen a main at a time and see if it makes a difference.
The mains are the most difficult to adjust with the engine "assembled".
I always fill the troughs and after the pan is on and filled spin the engine over without the spark plugs to get the oil moving.
I assume you put a little oil in the pockets above the front and rear mains.

I put some oil in the various pockets, front, rear and center, not sure precisely how those work to serve the bearings, gravity I assume. I think I will pin the rod caps tommorow, and place the oil pan on temporary using old gasket, put a bit of new oil in valve train area, and try turning engine over a few times as you suggest. If everything seems OK, then I will put pan on properly with new gasket and hopefully be able to start it up. Fingers crossed!

Everything should be okay. All it takes to properly lube the moving parts of a rotating but not running engine is some oil between bearing and crank. If you crank it over until you get oil to show at the rocker shafts then it will be ready to start.

Gunsmoke, you may find that the crankshaft could be a little tight due to the crankshaft having a slight bend to it, causing a bit of run out of the journals in relation to each other. When engine shops remove a crankshaft it is normally checked for straightness on a pair of vee blocks , and pressed straight if needed. I know that you could not do this as your engine and crank are still in the car.