6.2/6.5 assembly tips

Please, lets keep this thread clear of discussions and save for build tips, part numbers etc. It will be easier to navigate that way. :) If you have some good numbers or info, please post them for all to use.

Missy

Hello fellow GM diesel lovers

Well I am taking this time during my DaHooooley rebuild to capture some tech tips and get them in pix and make comment.

The pix will follow but are pretty self explanatory and have notes where needed.

One of the biggies is to be sure the rear cam plug is sealed well.
Apply permatex to the plug and drive in with a suitable driver and a hammer. (large socket that just fits inside the lip on the plug)

Be sure the lip is just flush with the back of the block.

Now for anyone who has ever had one leak or worse yet COME OUT :eek:
I prefer to do two things.
I drill and tap two 6/32 holes in the plug boss and insert two little button head allen screw with a washer to catch the edge of the plug.

I also do a covering of the joint with JB weld

Having seen what happens when they leak or come out I will always do this.

A large oil leak from the bellhousing leaves a huge sick HOLE in the pit of your gut :eek:

This procedure takes little time and make it bullet proof.

The holes only need to be driiled about 1/4 inch into the boss and just close enough to the plug that the washer fully catches the rim of the plug.

Next is the Plasti gauge procedure.

With the upper bearing shells in place, lay the crank carefully into the block and position so the counter weights are as far out of the way as possible.

NOW resist all temptation to turn the crank as there is NO LUBE ON IT. :eek:

Next apply a very light smear of oil to the main journals (just enought to make a smudge)

Take a small piece of the Plasti Gauge material and lay on the main journal.

Set the caps on and tap into place. Torque the bolts down to at least 75% of the value.

Remove the caps

Now have a look at the smashed plasti gauge.

We can see using the little paper sleave graphics that the bearing clearance is right about .002" possibly a couple tenths more.

This is not rocket science and works easy and fast.

Be sure to check all the mains

We will do the rods later on as we get that far.

Never assume that all is well, Check all the bearings ;) ALWAYS

Now scrape the plasti gauge off using your fingernail. Wipe the journal clean and take the crank out.

Lubriplate 105 is the real deal for a build and is the choice of campions.
It stays where you put it and does not run out but washes out with the oil when the engine is fired off.

Lube the upper inserts and set the crank back into the block.

Lube and insert the rear main seal into the crank with the seal lip facing the inside of the engine.

Align the back edge of the seal with the inner edge of the little chamfer on the block and cap.

You can lift the crank slightly to do this. Be sure the seal is square and straight all around.

Apply High tack as shown in the pix (Lightly) this will assure an oil tight seal between the cap and the block.

Apply 105 to the inserts in the caps. (Be sure to remove any left over plasti gauge first)


Set the main caps on one at a time and snug the bolts.
Be sure the rear seal is even all around. DO NOT LUBE THE OUTER RIM OF THE SEAL. This will assure a good fit between the ribs of the seal and the block and cap.

Leave the bolts on number 3 (Thrust main) just barely snug

Once all the rest of the mains are snug use a large rubber dead blow hammer or a wood mallet to smack the crank for and aft to seat the thrust main cap and even it up.

Now start the tightening procedure.

I like to do the center main first and do the inside bolts to 50# and the outer to about 35#

Do all the mains and check to be sure at every change in torque that the crank will turn by hand.

Next bring all the bolts up to about 75# inner and 50# outer
Then do the final torque to 110# inner and 100# outer (12MM bolt blocks new blocks use lighter torque on the 10mm outers)

HINT that will SAVIOR A$$

After each main is brought to final torque, mark the cap with a sharpy pen.

Now this may seem stupid !! :confused: but believe me, when the phone rings and you come back later, DUHHHHHHHHH where was I ?????????????

The ones with the marks you know are good to go.

This is also to be done as each rod cap is brought to torque.
Mark it on the pad on the bottom.

Here is a shot of the nice finish of the crank.

This is the crank that came from the engine that cracked the block.
I hand pollished it with some 600 grit emery that I ran over a sharp piece of steel to knock the sharp off the paper

Very nice finish with only smudges from handling. Crank may have 75K miles not sure.

You can look at the pix and pretty well see whats what here.

The cam was installed prior to the procedures above and the clearance checked for and aft with the cam plug

(make sure you have about 1/32" of back clearance so you dont chew the cam plug)

Use blue locktite on the cam plate retaining bolts.
Bolt comes out its game over. :eek:

More later as the build progresses.

I hope to document the whole build this way so it will provide reference for others.
I will make this thread a "sticky" to keep it handy.

Just a note here. You can see the inserted center main bolt holes well in the one pix

Best

Robyn

More Pix of the build

Thanks for the write up. I am expecting my new pistons very soon and will be going through the same process as you.
Leroy
http://www.thedieselpageforums.com/p...ebuild_010.JPG

C'Mon over and y'all can help me stuff this sucker back into the beast :D

This was not my choice of years to do a rebuild for sure. $$$$$$$$$$$$$ in short supply right now but at least I will know what I have now.

Plus I will be shed of some oil leaks and other anoying crap.

I will post the fitting of the rings, rods and other parts too as I get to it.

The final go round and start up, I may do on video and post it on my web server so all can see. :)

Later

Robyn

For the rear bearing cap seal on the block you're actually supposed to use an anerobic, the GM stuff is red like the hi-tack. Is the hi-Tack an anerobic?

Nope just sticky as all get out.

I have used High tack on several of these and had zero issues.

The anerobic stuff is spendy and most of us dont have a can lying around.

Just gotta use the High tac sparingly is all :)

More good stuff

This last weekend saw the timing gears go in but little else.
I did however yank the heads off the floor and start to clean and ready them to go back on.

Reason, Checkbook is sucking into a vacuum.

Heads looked good but upon close inspection I found some cracks through a couple exhaust seats that went out onto the firedeck. :eek:

No dice baby, notta gonna fly this way.

SOOOOOOOOOO off to dig up some heads.

Found a set of rebuilt heads over at the coast. OH YEAH BUDDY.

Well now, good used stuff can be found BUTTTTTTTTTT ya gotta be careful and know what your looking at.

The seller agreed happily to allow Li'll Ol me to pull the valves out one at a time and look things over.

I also took my makita with the big cup brush too.

The first head looked ok with only a small crack on a couple seats. No biggy.

The seats and the valve faces all reflected a recent shopping so the story fit together.
Heads came off a 6.5 that had seen the top end done and then checked a rod only a few months later.

Now
Onto head number two.

Get it on the bench and soon notice that the precup markings are different.

One head has a single small square stamp on the cups and the other has a single round stamp on the cups.

Now ya gotta have all the little critters the same. DONT EVER MIX cups.

They can vary a lot from one marking to the other.

There are Diamond marks (Late 6.5 heads) by what I can find this is supposed to be a universal cup to replace all applications.

The Single dot is a 6.5 as is the single square

There is also a 2 small square dots with a large T
The fire port is nearly as big as the Diamond cup

The inside of these different cups vary in CC capacity too.

There are cups with no markings at all
Some early 6.2 cups have very small ports and also the shape of the port is totally different than the 6.5 stuff.

Here is a pix I took of several cups I now have.

The diamond one came from my DaHooooley engine and has cracks in the corners of the port that go all the way to the fire ring on the gasket.

The T cup is from a set I found that will go in the good heads I got.
The 1 dot and 1 square are from the heads I got at the coast

The one at the bottom is a J code 6.2 cup

The inside is very small compared to the 6.5 cups.

Any time you yank heads off an unknown engine/rig be sure to varify that all the cups are the same.

Having a mixed bag can effect harmonics in the engine due to uneven power strokes :eek:

Any type of these cups can be used as long as they are used in sets.

The large port cups are more often found in Federal emission engines such as the F and the light duty 6.5's will likely have smaller ported cups as will Cal. emission engines.

There seems to be little info available readily as to what was used on what engine code and when and why.

Hope this is useful to you folks.

Missy Robyn

Head tech
OK
Now that the heads are all steam cleaned and I can get close to them.

Time to pull all the valves, springs, shims and other goodies out and tagem and baggem.

These heads will be reused as is and with no machine work.
Its important to keep all the parts as they were when they came apart.

In the pictures you can see the parts stack with a zip tie through the set.

This is the exhaust springs and parts.

The rotators always go to the exhaust valves.

Keep the spring shims where they were.

Usually on a stock engine with factory heads there will be one hardened shim under the spring.

This stops the spring from chewing the head casting .

These heads have a mixture of 1 and 2 shims per setup to allow for the seat grinding that was done.

This will keep the assembled height of the spring correct.

Now the valve seats and ports have been all cleaned with a air powered cup brush.

The precup pockets are all cleaned and the sharp corners where the cup seat are all cleaned and free of carbon and crud

Now Notice the Pix of the valve with the carbon.

These engines will form huge envelopes or carbon on the backside of the intake valves over time.

These heads although not run very long had a large amount of carbon.

This is likely due to bad rings and a great amount of blowby. The intake ports were very wet with oil residue.

The story on the engine these heads came from seemed believable BUTTTTT ya just have to take everything for what its worth.

So far the seats and the valves look fine and will go right back to work.

The next step is to get the heads into the shop tomorrow and have them heated in hot water and pressure tested with 50+PSI air to check for any leaks that may not be obvious.

The heads show no cracks that are of issue. I did find a couple very tiny "Checks" on a couple exhaust seats.

Not worth bolting these on without testing.

The cost of the gasket and Bolts is about $60 per head.

Not to mention the work to get things back apart again. :eek:

Once the heads come back from the shop (with a clean bill of health) :) it will be time to install new stem seals on the exhaust guides (teflon press on seal caps) and new Orings.

A little lube on the stems and back in they go.

Button things back up and good to go.


Just a side note here

A 6.2 or 6.5 that has a lot of miles and has sat for a long period can see these large carbon heaps on the intake valves fall off and go into the cylinder.

This is a nasty situation and will lock the engine up tight.

These carbon cones that form on the valve can be very large. The amount of room on top of the piston is very small and if an engine starts and has this stuff fall into the cylinder, it will hammer like hell.

Any used engine that has sat a long time should at the least have the intake removed and the ports and such inspected for this issue.

If the problem exists the heads need to come off and the intake valves removed and cleaned.

This can do serious damage to the engine if allowed to get into the cylinders and hammer things.

A large enough piece can hold a valve open to the point that the piston swats it and then the problem is even more serious.

Piston damage, rod and crank damage. OHHHHHH My :eek:


More coming soon

Robyn

Used Block
Warning

For anyone rebuilding a 6.2/6.5 engine.
Many of these blocks are up to 27 years old now (6.2) and 17 years on the 6.5

There is a whole lot that can and does happen to these chunks of Iron in this amount of time.

My reason for writing this is simple.

Yesterday the world came to an end as far as My current 6.5 block that was going into the DaHooooley.

Turns out that the "Good High Mile" used block, had sometime in the past been decked on one side and not the other.

Upon inspecting the thing when purchased it needed decking.

The machine shop I used agreed, and WE decked it .015" on the LH side and about the same on the RH side.

Under normal circumstances this would have been fine and a .010" Thicker gasket would have been fine.

Not until I started assembly did it become aparent that the RH side had been decked twice.

So now the pistons on the RH side stick above the deck .030" (approx)

Way too far to be used.

There are many issues that come to play here.
Compresion, valve trian dimensions etc.

Bottom line.

Check any and all blocks before you spend $$$ on machine work.

If its a bare block, drop in a set of front and rear mains, the crank and a piston and rod assembly, one on each side and measure the protrusion above the deck.

Be sure you buy with care and get it in writing that the thing is useable.

Best

Robyn

More tech tips

Here are some current pix of the timing gears and chain

These are very self explanatory.

The one thing though being, the timing marks on the Pump drive gear also align with the crank gear when being assembled.

Once the gears and the chain are on the crank can be turned to place the pump drive gear with the mark to the top of the engine.

The actual pump gear can then have its mark aligned with the drive gear.

The bolts that hold the gears to the cam and to the pump need to be retained with Blue Loctite.

If these come out its GAME OVER and parts will crash and break :eek:

Another item is keeping the project clean while its being worked on.

A plastic garden/ trashbag works sweet to slide over the little beast after a session to keep dust and other crap out.

Missy

More good stuff

Many Pix

More pix of the assembly tips

The build is finally progressing well.

The custom gasket for the one side should be here late this week.

Here is one final Pix that many will find useful

MORE part numbers of needed and at times hard to find parts with pictures

The turbo Boost hose
Oil Cooler quick connect at the block
Turbo drain tube connector hose at the block flange
Heater quick connect (Steel unit from NAPA that will not break off.


Robyn

A note here on the heater quick connectors that come from the factory.

These little Bast***s will normally break off when you try to remove them. :eek::eek::eek:

The factory ones are POT metal and have an orange silicone dry seal compound on the threads.

These will bake in to the point of almost being welded

A word to the WISE here. :)

Breaking one off is not a big deal. Forget the easy out, Taint happnin Y'all

The only way to easily get these out is to break the sucker off and then cut it out with a die grinder and a carbide bur.

Grind on three sides (triangle inside the hole) just to the point that you can see the threads starting to show (just barely now) and then using a capping chisel and a small hammer knock the pieces loose and out of the crossover.

I did the one on the DaHooley Xover in about 15 minutes from start to finish. ( this included running a 1/2" pipe tap into the threads to chase them clean)

The task can be done without destroying the Xover or the hole. :D

Install the new NAPA coupler with the sealant it comes with or if bare use a little silicone or even permatex 2 will suffice on the threads.

The new little creature will seal fine.

Please dont run out and buy a new Xover just because the old connector broke off. :(

DO remove the Xover from the engine to remove the fitting though,as there will be a fair amount of shavings and pieces that you dont need in the cooling system.

Always run a tap in to clean the threads. (Just enough to clean, dont go gung ho here ) :)


Best

Robyn

Cometic Head gaskets

http://www.cometic.com/

This is the link to cometic gasket company

These guys can sell you a custom head gasket for your 6.2/6.5 in almost

any thickness you might need.

Their spec is for "compressed thickness"

A stock Felpro head gasket is about .040"-.045" thick after its compressed.

The stock cometic is .045" thick

I ordered a .070" thick gasket for one side.

If you have a block that needs decking more than the law allows, these folks can help with the gasket.

Their gaskets are not cheap, but can certainly save an otherwise good block.

Robyn

Pix of the new custom Cometic gasket

Note the Orientation "R" on the gasket.

Thes gaskets have R and L and are designed without the water port up front that allows coolant to sit next to the head casting, resulting in the electrolysis that forms around the number 1 and 2 fire rings.

The Cometic has the rear passage to allow coolant to flow from the block to the head only

The layers are riveted together in four places two top and two bottom.

Not a cheap option but this is definately better than scrapping the block.

Missy

Here are some nice tips on the lifters, guide plates and guide retainers

Pre filling the lifters with ATF as shown is a good idea. The lifter will have oil in it and be ready to go.

The guide plates should be centered on the lifters before tightening the retainer.

The retainer is tightened down to torque.

Once all the lifters are in, manually roll the engine over with a wrench on the crank to be sure nothing binds.

Any binding of the lifters must be corrected. (Not a common issue though)

Now The issue of getting the pushrods in correctly.

One end of all 6.2/6.5 pushrods will have a copper colored ball.
Generally this will be well worn by the time you get to it though.

The pix shows a faint copper ring around the ball, thats all you need to see to be able to correctly insert the pushrods

The copper colored ball goes to the rockers. NO EXCEPTION

I have yanked apart a lot of these engines and found a real mixed bag of how the pushrods were installed

Do it wrong and the ball will go away and your valve train will fail.

Enjoy

Robyn

More pictures

Robyn, thanks for going to the trouble to post all of these pics and explanations! I've never done anything much below the valve covers and your posts have been very helpful in giving me more confidence to venture down there. Add in the DP how-to book and I'll be off and running. I'm still trying to find some free weekends to throw some head gaskets onto my Sub in preparation of putting on that hard-to-come-by ATS turbo of mine.

You sure you're not going to be in NC anytime soon??

Never been to NC. Fact is never been farther east than Wyoming.

You are very welcome.

I have the time to do the pix as the engine goes back together so I figured it would be a nice thing for a lot of folks.

Even the factory manuals are sorely lacking in so many cases.
The pix they offer are hardly better than sketches in many cases.

The 6.2/6.5 diesel is really not much different than a basic Gas V8

With the injection system off the engine there is little difference.

Basic rebuild procedures are all about the same.

Glad you find the stuff useful.

Robyn

Timing marks on the
Pump gears
and the pump bolts

Ok
The timing marks are well shown in the attached picture.
The dots on the pump gear and the cam gear are self explanatory.

With the cam gear "DOT" facing up (top of engine) align the pump gear "Dot" with the cam gear "Dot"
Your set.

Now the pump slides into the housing with ease and is held in place by three (3) nuts.

The pump can only go into the gear ONE (1) way.
The bolt pattern on the IP is not symetrical and there is also a PIN on the IP flange that indexes with a slot in the gear.

Unless your the worlds biggest PUTZ
you can not scew this up.

The stuff simply will not go together wrong.

The only exception is the timing marks

"DOTS"

If the marks are right, your all set to go with NO WORRIES.

Crank sprocket dot indexed with cam sprocket dot
Cam gear is keyed to cam.
The cam sprocket dot is indexed with the pump gear dot.

One last thing Be sure to use BLUE Loctite on the bolts that hold the gear to the pump.

one of these falls out GAME OVER

Job DONE ;)

Missy

Bolting on the heads

Now here we have a nice little chart that shows the head bolt torqueing sequence.

Now a word to the wise.
The 1st stop is shown at 20 Lbs. BS, not gonna happen :eek:

Spin all the bolts in snug with a speed handle.

Now take them down in the sequence shown to 25 ftlbs.
At 25 they will hold there and not keep moving.

Now take the complete set through the sequence to 50 ft lbs.
Run through a second time to be sure they are all holding at 50 ftlbs.

Now go through the sequence and give each bolt 1/4 turn more.

This is a 90 degree turn on the bar. I like to mark each bolt head as I do them to make sure I dont miss one.

Now, the part they dont tell you.

Take your torque wrench and starting at number one (1) bolt pull the wrench up and see at what point the bolt will just start to move.

My experience shows this to be at or around 100 ft Lbs.

Go back through the sequence and check each bolt as you carefully ease it up to the 100 ftlb or so mark.

You will likely find that one or more bolts will fall short of the 100 ftlbs.
I have found the some of the first ones in the sequence will be a little light on the torque after the final 1/4 turn.. (75 ft lbs or so)

With the DaHooooley engine the RH head using the MLS gasket from Cometic displayed a whole different feel upon torqueing.

The last 1/4 turn was a BITCH and I really had to lay into the break bar to get it.

This tells me that the Felpro gaskets are compressing a lot and that last 1/4 turn is causing things to move a little more.

All the bolts felt real good at 50+ pounds but after the final 1/4 turn things did move some more.

Just a good thing to do that final check and be sure all the bolts are the same torque.

I have never been a fan of the TTY bolts. There are several companies that make regular bolts for the 6.2/6.5.

Also there are stud kits available too.

Main issue is to be sure your bolts are all even.

one bolt that does not come up to par can cause issues.
This can be a leaky gasket down the road many miles or also an area of the block that is not under the same stress levels.

I have always just used the chart and done the 1/4 turn thing, Hmmmm seems that the tried and true stuff from the General is not perfect :eek:

Hope this helps.

Missy

Oil filter adapter
O Rings

Here is a piccy of the O rings needed for the right angle mount used on the 6.5 in the pickups and burbs

(4X4)

These rings can at times be tough for some parts guys to find.

The part numbers are GM numbers so your all set to go.

Missy

Injector return hose
Kit
From Dipaco

Here is a pix of the Dipaco diesel parts return hose kit.
This kit contains everything you will need to either rehose existing injectors that have some leaky hoses or to do a fresh set...

The hoses have a nice braid on them and you dont need clamps on the ends either, just push them on and go.

There are two little rubber end caps for the number 7 and 8 injectors to cap the unused return port.

Also included is a gasket for the top hat on the Turbo models and it includes a gasket for the aircleaner on the N/A motors.

The hoses can easily be trimmed to length to suit the need.

There are also 8 copper injector seal rings too.

A great kit at a reasonable price.

The part number is right on the package as seen in the pix.

Easy to use and you get it all in one package.

GM sells all the stuff too but you buy it by the piece.
The GM hoses require the clamps, the Dipaco do not.

Clamps only needed for the end caps.

Missy

Very nice write up.

One thing I like to do, instead of using the rubber caps in the return hose kit. I use a short piece of the braided hose apply sealant to a small allen head screw and insert it into the hose then install that inplace of the caps. The rubber seems to not last long. The caps over time will crack. The braided hose is more durable.

Thanks again for the great write ups.
Leroy

Glad to help

Been using the DaHoooley build to get loads of pix.

So many folks just feel intimidated by these engines and much of this stuff will help out a bunch for the first timer through a 6.2/6.5

I will keep the stuff coming through the final stages of the build.
I am thinking about a video on the startup of the Fresh Yellow Motor.:D


later

MGW

A word of caution
When installing the return hoses on the injectors, the job is not at all hard.

There are a couple areas that can reach up and grab you by the BUTTTTTTTTTTTT :eek:

The injectors dont always screw in with the return nipples all in a neat row, NOT EVEN.

No matter. Install a squeeze clamp (Constant torque) on the rear cap plug from the kit and with the clamp slightly squeezed slip it over the rear most nipple.

Now the traverse hoses need to be shortened a little bit to fit clean and neat. (about 1-1/2 Inches off the provided length)

The LH side is a snap. fit the last one up front so it neatly connects to the Xover return pipe.

Now the RH side can require a tad more care. The center hoses run behind the metal heat shield, and if things are not perfect, and they never are, the center two return lines will rub on the two little ventilator tabs that stick into the area behind the shield.

Now the hoses are covered with braid, but can rub on the shield and over time will possibly wear a hole.

A ruptured line on the turbo side can be a serious fire hazard.

The spray of fuel under the shield ignites, then the blast of air from the fan turns the area into a Blow torch and turns you grand old truck into a crispy critter.

To eliminate the issue, simply thread the return line through a piece of fuel line that just allows the small line to pass. Center the "softener" line up so it will hit the shield instead of the little one.

This will prevent a very serious issue from happening.


Have fun and enjoy.

Missy

Another important area to clean up

The RH reaR OF the block just below the deck and around the back of the cylinder case.

The glow plug wires and a few other important wires lay in this area.

They feed behind the heat shield and over the starter.

The nasty flashing on the casting has, can and will tear up the wiring.

You can see in the pix that this area has been ground smooth.

Takes only a few minutes and will save a buttload of grief later on if you get a short in the wiring.

Robyn

The 6.5 TD project has come to a successful conclusion.

Anyone needing specific advice or that have questions are more than welcome to either post to the 6.5 board or PM me with any questions.


Thanks

Robyn

Hi, all.

I am currently rebuilding my own dually, and ran into a couple of things I thought might be helpful.

First is the picture below. Notice how the bearing covers one side more than the other? This "empty" side should be assembled to the outside of the rod journal. On my rods, I noticed that correctly assembled with the "empty" to the outside all of the stamped numbers faced away from the crank.
http://www.thedieselpageforums.com/p...od_bearing.jpg

This next picture shows the rod half snugged up on the journal. It is a bad picture but if you look closely you can see that the bearing is absent from over the deep rolled fillet on the outside of the journal. This is why the bearing as seen in the first picture doesn't cover all of that side.
http://www.thedieselpageforums.com/p...on_journal.jpg

This next picture just shows me using a long punch inserted through the piston pin to hold the piston just out of the cylinder. This trick holds the piston in place so I can get the ring compressor around the rings while it is sitting in the hole.
http://www.thedieselpageforums.com/p...ton_holder.jpg

Hope these help someone. I will try and add more as I come across it.

Thank you for sharing.

Great stuff for those just getting their wrenching "FEET" wet

Believe me, I have seen engines put together with the rods in Backwards :eek:

I have personally pulled apart a 6.2 that had the recardo bowls (Indents in pistons) at the top of the cylinder instead of the bottom.

They will run that way. :(

Oh yess all these little things are very usefull


Thanks again


Missy

On my 599 block (I will assume all 599's until someone corrects me) the oil cooler by-pass valve (this is the one close to the block and covered by the freeze plug thingy) is acdelco part #25161285. The oil filter by-pass valve is the same as is used on the 6.2l block. It is acdelco part #25011206. These parts are getting hard to source. Bottom line, don't let your machine shop toss the valves!! If you have a later block the oil cooler by-pass is the same number as above but the oil filter by-pass is acdelco part #25014006.

Also on my 599 block the oil pump bolt is 10mm where the later blocks are 12mm. Just some things to be aware of.

Rogers,

Thanks for the info on the rod bearing, and placement. Nice trick on holding the piston in the bore while getting your ring compressor ready. Heck, I'll try it on this next couple of engines...

Good info. During my current rebuild, which still is not back in the truck, I marked the rod caps with a punch on their upper-most side during dissasembly. In my haste, I got the first 2 wrong (how in the heck can you do that?). I tried to reassemble them according to my scheme and found that the caps that were turned over incorrectly were binding the rotating assembly, easily noticed when turning the assembly over with a wrench on the balancer bolt.

And yes, I also installed some of the pistons upside down. But that mistake was easy to catch and just cost me more time.

I always stamp the rods on the outside with numbers 1-8 and do both the cap and the rod.
I do this as I tear the engine down.

Makes life a whole bunch easier later on.

Years ago the rods were all marked from the factory. Today with all the select fit stuff they dont do it anymore.

Getting a set of caps mixed up can be problematic.

Just easier to mark them with a number right off.


Missy