I had engine, crank and pistons cleaned and inspected by a engine rebuilding shop. (1987 chevy 5.7 4 bolt main) They said everything was good and ready for assembly. they supplied me with the rebuild kits. cylinders were honed by them. I put in the new cam and the old but cleaned and inspected crank and new bearings. (everything was prelubed before install) Clearance was checked on the crank bearings and it was good. Put three pistons in, then when I started turning the crank more it seized up. I had to put harmonic balancer on with two bolts in it so I could put a breaker bar on it to turn the engine to get the rod bolts to take back apart.
1. Why would I have to use a 5 lb hand sledge to get pistons out.
2. Could there be burs on rings.
3. rings were installed properly.
4. Some kind of crud came out of oil port on crank main journal and seized crank. Crank only turned less than 180 degrees till it seized.
5. Shop said its not there fault. Crud coming out wont seize up crank. You can still turn by hand. Crank had a gouge and a little lift to it right in line with oil hole and bearing were gouged bad. I say it would seize the crank. True?
Please help. I have a lot of hard earned money in this engine and I feel like I'm getting ripped off by poor workmanship on there side. I'm a journeyman Tool and Die Maker and I build tools and dies that make these kinds of parts. I work with tolerances less than .0005 of an inch. I've rebuilt engines all my life as a hobby and never ran into this kind of problem.
I will have to say that this is the first time that I left someone else clean and inspect block, crank, pistons etc. I took there word that it was ready to assemble.
Diemaker@aol.com
