I just finished replacing the main and rod bearings, changed the manifold, head, valley, sump, and valve cover gaskets, changed out front cover (failed oil pump) with gaskets changed for water pump and cover. New plugs (p4s) and wires (Mag 8s).

I started it up and it ran at very high rpms but eventual settled down. Oil pressure is good (no light anyway) but it is sounding very rough with a dead cyclinder which is propably due to miswiring the plugs but also very lound valve noise coming from the passenger side bank which I'm sure is due to starting it up on ATF to I can do an engine flush straight away. Can I assume this will quite down once I've put in the 15w40 dino oil?

What else should I be doing after completing all of this work?

Thanks!

 

ATF is a crappy flush anyhow, use berryman chemtool (stuff that says for use in oil) available at carquest in a cheap dino oil, that stuff is powerful but safe as is seafoam. Run it at idle for 20 mins and dump and refill. ATF really just looks like it is working because it is a thinner oil but it has no more solvent/detergent power than a regular thin motor oil. The valve train or lifter noise should go away with the thicker oil.

Check your wire routing

 

Here's a vid link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZqq5HySQLI

 

Check the wires and put motor oil in the engine.

 

Congratulations on the new diesel lol.

 

if you changed everything out, trust me, it was clean afterwards. you didnt need to do a flush. and besides you flush the engine before doing engine work.

not afterwards.

 

that made me chuckle at my desk...

IMHO you need to check the wiring on the wires and get some real oil in there, i wouldnt run it with ATF like that...

 

A flush is a fine idea especially if you have some heavy varnish and deposits. You need to dump the new oil anyhow to get rid of any residual coolant and junk from the job.

 

Flush should have been done first, but not after installing new bearings???

 

A flush done properly won't damage anything but yeah first might have been better as you could have done a harsher flush like a full bottle of chemtool and rev every couple minutes up to 2000 rpm for 30 mins. I would only do that if it was a sludger though. Usually after a head gasket job I put in cheap dino oil for a week with a fram filter then dump them.