Thanks HRL. I made sure to polish all the journals and thoroughly clean them all up before re-assembly. Now my next question...I put a new rope seal in the rear main bearing cap (Yeah, I know you're supposed to do both, but since the engine is in the truck, I figured I'd just do what I could. Shouldn't hurt, right? Maybe not completely solve the problem, but hopefully it helps at least a little bit. Anything is better than nothing.) Anyways, I cleaned out the old seal groove very well, and rolled in the new seal. It's from Fel-Pro, and is the rope seal embedded with graphite. I got it down in the seal groove as best I could (after much work pinching, pushing, and working my way back and forth getting it pushed in a little further every time. Then when it was in, I used a razor blade and sliced the seal off even with the bearing cap. I have done rope seals once before on a tractor, and they are still holding well 3 years later. (I'd say the tractor is still leak-free, but about once a month it drips 1 drop from the rear main seal, but I'd call that a success) When I did the tractor, after putting the seals in and re-tourquing the main cap, I couldn't turn the engine, even using a long pry bar. Surprisingly the 6V starter turned it over, and after a couple days the engine began to free up a bit. Now, on this truck...I haven't even got the main bearing cap torqued down all the way (I'm at about 80 lbs) and I can't even turn the engine with the same long pry bar, prying from the flywheel. (It's about 2' long). Should I be worried? Before I put the rope seal in, even with the rear bearing cap snugged down I could turn the engine over with the long 24" pry bar; the engine having a light drag. Now with the seal in, it's locked down tight, even with only 80 pounds of torque on the cap. The pry bar starts flexing, but nothing moves. I knew this might happen, so that's why I tried for quite a while to work that seal down into the groove as best I could. I worked it in, then used a round dowel to further help roll it in, starting in the middle then going up one side, returning to the middle, then rolling up the other side. Any advice? Thanks
