Progress over the past couple days. I wasted quite a bit of time and plastigage on the first two rods (6&5). Checked clearances first, then removed shims, checked again, removed more shims checked. OK time to speed up the process.
I’d been checking on a dry crank with a clean dry rod cap. Temp in the shop was low 50’s but that big mass of iron was 45 F. Seems it’s recommended in less than shirt sleeve weather to very lightly oil the crank when using plastigage After adding a couple drops of oil the plastigage spread out, flattening as it should. I suspect giving a more accurate reading.
I started pulling one .002 shim from each side of the remaining 4 rods and checking. In each case this gave a clearance between .0015 and .0017. The .0017 was a calibrated eye ball reading since the paper gage goes from.0015 to .002.
The crank looks as good as a crank should. The rod caps looked good to my inexperienced babbitt bearing eye. #1 rod cap is the most seasoned looking. Images below.
I was expecting to see one rod with more wear to account for the warm engine slight knock. Since pre adjustment all the clearances were fairly uniform between.003 and .004 I don’t expect to see a change. But I’m hoping.
