That seems excessive.... what is the spec for ring end gap?

 

I just did a web search.... see below. Were you able to get your new rings gapped within spec? Which old ring are you showing?

 

Hey guys, sorry I haven't posted in a week or so. Been raining and have not had a chance to do any work. I have the new piston and rings installed already and have been waiting for the weather to subside. Gapping is on the high side but within specs...hopefully tomorrow I can get a chunk of the work done...will send some pics as I progress

 

Take your time, do it once, do it right, don't worry about it again.

 

Ok, had a beautiful day yesterday to work on the truck. So, I proceeded to clean all mating surfaces with an acetone/transmission fluid mix and a scotchbright pad. Works wonders on piston tops as well. Broke down all carbon build up and they turned out great as you can see in the pics. I then went over the mating surfaces with a block and some 320 grit sandpaper to clean up any leftover debris. That got them a little cleaner and made sure they were smooth. Didn't get all coloring out but I am not too worried about that. They are flat / smooth and no anomalies. Proceeded to get underneath and clean up the block surface for the oil pan, torqued the rod bolts down to specs. attached the windage tray and oil pick-up after cleaning everything. Installed the oil pan torqued bolts to spec installed the dust cover and then the cross bar that had to be removed in order to drop the pan. Here are a couple pics of the progress.

cleaned and painted

new windage tray and oil pickup

cleaned and pistons

new piston in #2 and then cleaned remaining

 

Looks like progress !

 

Cleaned up rather nicely.

 

Question for you guys. I have watched a video series from a YouTuber that has an 8 pt series on the teardown and rebuild of the 4.7L. At one point he shows the assembly of the timing system, it is very straight forward. My question is how do I turn the camshaft to align it as the instructions state, I attempted with a pair of vise grips but I could not rotate it...thats what he used...What are your thoughts?

 

Move the chain out of the way, put the gear on, use that to pry against to get it where you want it. (don't pry on the gear teeth though.) Hopefully, it won't be in a position that it will want to jump as soon as you let go.

 

I skimmed this video below (seems like a certified tech doing the work), and looks like they just use a pair of adjustable pliers to grab the rough area of the cam and rotate. Yours should do the same, Is there plenty of assembly lube on your cam? Seems strange yours is so tight.