ok...so i am in the process of rebuilding the DOHC out of the wifes neon.....
so i got new piston rings...new rod bearings....new main bearings...new rear main seal...and some gaskets....
all OEM replacement sizes.....no oversized bearings or anything like that

so i put on all the new rings.....got all the new bearings in place.....torqued all the rods down like the manual said....torqued the bottom plate and everything down.....now,

the crank wont turn by hand!!!

took the bottom plate off, still wouldnt turn........checked all the bearings....everything was just how it should be.....tighten it back down and still wont turn.....

do i need to get the crank reground to work with the new bearings????

 

I wouldn't think so, but who knows.

 

Wat was wrong wit the engine in the first place?
the bearings went on my car, an my crank went outta round. you should check to see if the crank is within specs. the guy I bought my bearings an all my other engine parts from was a machinist an dint charge me a thing to measure erything on my engine.
hope this helps...only thing I could think of if you cant turn it

 

the engine orininaly had a bad rod knock.

i just dont really understand why it wont turn and i hate to put too much money into this car, but if i cant turn it then there is sumthing wrong.....with everything new, it should turn, but it wont budge. i just hate to take it in to get reground and spend more money if i dont have too.

oh and even when i took the bottom plate off the engine, i still couldnt get the crank to turn.....it wouldnt turn until i knocked the crank out of the bearing grooves, thats why i figure it might need to be reground....but i just need to know before tomorrow afternoon.

after we get the car working we might trade it in for a PT cruiser....but we arent sure yet[&:]

 

That sux Spuds.
I was thinkin bout usin plastigage but that wont help, then I membered one of my old mechanic friends tellin me about a kinda play dough like measuring thing. you put a thin layer of it around the crank on the journals and tightinin up everything an it'll show you if anythings outta round, jus by checkin if any areas are clearer then the others. lol I dunno if I explained that good enuff. I cant remember wat he called it tho.

 

wont turn by hand meaning without tools, or with tools, with new rings its gonna be tight, but you should be able to turn it over with a breaker bar or even a 1/2" drive ratchet, but that might feel stiff even--a fresh motor wont turn all that easy, maybe the main holes in the block are out of alignment.. may need align hoaned, what did the old main bearings look like? have any pics? check ring gap - rods all backwards?? im not trying to make you sound dumb, ive seen some very smart people make simple mistakes like that,
if it ran before without destroying itself it should run again, but thats not always the case,
you shouldtn be able to grab the balancer or flywheel and turn it tho


if you have teh crank turned down then you'd have to get oversides bearings and all that fun stuff of making the clearence right again

 

did you lube evrything before it went together? lol,
like i said not trying to make you feel dumb, i seen a guy put a motor together without the rings, and wonder why it rattled and smoked horribly, im surprised that one even ran

 

oh it takes alot to make me feel dumb...so dont worry...

everything is lubed up....the new bearings werent too bad, i just got new ones because i forgot which spots they came out of.....the motor did run before, not the greatest because it needed new rings.....before i took it apart you could easily spin it by hand...

now the manual says that once reassembled you should be able to turn it with 50 punds of torque or less....i couldnt get it to turn with 100 pounds....not even budge....i even had all my weight pushing down on the breaker bar and nothing would budge....

how would you put the rods in backwards????.....just wondering, but i know it isnt anything with the rods because the first time i tried, they werent even in there yet!

im on my way out the door to a talk to a guy i know that has a machine shop....he deals with this kinda stuff all day long, so ima see what he might think.....i will let you know

 

ok...so the guy said that my problem might be because im trying to put a different crank in the block then the one that was originally in it.....so i need to test that.....if it doesnt work then he said to bring in all the pieces and he will take a look at it all and see what he can find out........i guess in a while i will find out if its gonna work or not[&:]

 

Waiting for more info [8D]