The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Very 1st post, 1955 3800 1 ton dually in Indiana

Hi, this is my 1st post on the forum (although I've found and used TONS of helpful info from it over the past year). Last August I bought a '55 2nd series 3800 1 ton dually (235 engine) with a hoist with only 34,000 original miles and NO rust. I bought it from the 2nd owner who was retired but was a "mechanic" and had the beautiful, well-organized, clean, tidy shop behind his house to prove it. On the way home, the truck ran great and I drove it reasonably due to the steep rear end gearing, but halfway home on its 175 mile "maiden voyage" it spun a rod bearing. It came home on a rollback. After unloading my new prize, I called the "mechanic", expressed my displeasure and let him hear what a spun rod bearing sounds like over a cell phone. I knew it wouldn't fix anything but it made me feel a little better. A couple of weeks later I started it and idled it slowly into the garage for a teardown. The crap that was in the bottom of the oil pan was amazing. It was gray, about an inch deep and the consistency of plumbers' pipe dope. The hinged oil pump pickup was buried in it and basically starving the engine of oil. The #5 rod was spun but the other bearings hadn't been hurt. (Of course I was going to replace everything anyway). Since then, I've pulled it down, modified the block for full-flow filtration (per the great how-to on Deve's site), sent everything out for machine work and am now putting it back together.
I have two questions regarding rods and one regarding the rear main seal.
It's been so long since I pulled it down, I can't remember which way the pinch bolts on the rods are oriented. Are they lined up on the camshaft side of the engine or the non-camshaft side? What should the pinch bolts be torqued to? I've read posts that said the shop manual says to "tighten" them. That ain't gonna cut it. I want to make sure I don't over-tighten them and break the fragile-looking little end or under-tighten them and risk turning my pistons into six interesting ashtrays. Anybody have a good reliable torque value?
The crank is in, caps are shimmed and Plastigaged, bolts are torqued down and then afterwards I read a couple of posts indicating that the neoprene lip rear main seal I installed won't work with shimmed caps. I assembled everything very carefully and made sure the ends of the seal were touching each other and the shims were not pinched between the ends. Will this setup be leak-free or do I need to tear it back apart and use the rope seal? Thanks in advance for all your help! Dale

Hi Dale, welcome to the site as a member. Sucks that you spun a bearing so soon. I did that in my 454 in my Beaumont, I felt sick about it.

You are in the welcome center here, you may get good advice about your questions here, but you should try posting in the engine shop.

Good luck with it.

Leo

One trick to leak-proofing the seal is to put a tiny dab of sealer between the cap and the block on both sides before you torque up the cap. High-temperature RTV rubber works well, either the red or the black type. Don't overdo it. A little goes a long way. If the seal ends can be rotated slightly where the parting line of the seal isn't exactly aligned with the cap/block intersection, that works well, also. Even a 1/4" rotation of the seal ends is plenty to avoid a leak at the parting line. Good luck!
Jerry