First, an update on the ongoing adventure of the D2 my son was given (as in free) with a slipped sleeve (#4 cylinder).

Pulled engine, tore it down, tried to document everything as best a possible (so far so good on re-assembly).

Had new sleeves pressed into the block by Q&E in Anaheim (I found it hilarious that you can send a 75lb bare block via UPS and not need to freight ship it).

Been spending past week rebuilding the short block by the book: had crank polished, rods checked and "rounded", plastiguaged all the new bearings to be sure the tolerances were within spec and gapped rings (the pistons slipped in fine though they still seem a little tight when we rotate it -- they drag ever so slightly, but then they aren't marring the cylinder wall and aren't fully seated yet and won't be until you actually run it, right? you can hear a little "drag" in the cylinders -- this is normal for fresh cylinder and rings, right? We used GM EOS on the cylinder walls and redline assembly lube with EOS afterwards on all the bearings. Without the heads on, the whole short block required about 15 ft-lbs to rotate it: everything I read said that anything below 20 for an American small block V8 is ok).

Heads were also rebuilt (decked just in case slipped sleeve led to warpage, springs checked, valves reseated, new seals) and are on, rocker covers are polished (had to do it given how good the rest of the engine looked) and we are getting ready to put it on the engine hoist and put it back in. (our engine didn't have hoist rings: where should we attach the chains to lift it? it looks like there are places on the ends of the heads where you can attach a lifting bracket -- is this the right point to do it?)

But before I do that, I wanted to make sure I had the rear main seal in correct.

My son actually set it and held it in-place while I focused on getting the crucifix seals in on the end cap and tapping the end cap down into place. Rather than press in the main seal after the end cap is tightened like the manual says, we installed it on the crank, then tightened the end cap down on it.

It seems to be in-place OK, but I was wondering whether tapping around it with say a 1/2" wood dowel just to make sure it is fully seated is a good idea.

Right now it is sitting right below the face of the end cap by probably 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch -- you can just feel it with your finger.

Does this sound about right, or should it be seated deeper into the end cap? I can't remember what it looked like when we took it off, and I would hate to have it pop out once we turn this sucker over.

Any thoughts or advice on this would be appreciated.

Also any thought on priming the engine and general break-in procedure would also be appreciated.

 

sounds right on rear main. just below flush.
most just pack the oil gear and turn over without spark or fuel. I plan to spin mine with a drill motor until I get oil flowing

 

most just pack the oil gear and turn over without spark or fuel.

 

What does packing the oil gear mean? (btw we put in new oil pump gears and timing drivetrain -- chain and sprockets -- as well).

And how can you turn this over with a drill? I thought the drill trick only worked with a motor with a distributor.

 

if you pack the oil pump gear with lube or Vaseline it will make for a quick prime of the system

 

Thanks, wish I would have asked about priming before we buttoned up the whole engine as I have plenty of the redline assembly lube left after greasing up all the bearings.

Guess we'll just turn it over without spark to get all the oil channels filled.

Thoughts on break-in once it's running? I've read to run the engine at 2000rpm for 15min then stop, cool, repeat 3-4 times before actually driving it around.

 

Am i crazy or did i see a phantom Disco Mike post on here last night?

 

you're crazy

 

Thought I saw that too..... made me put my drink down actually....

 

I saw it as well. Same avatar, but only something like 7 posts. I didn't think to look to see what the "join date" said.