[corvette66]

Hopefully someone might be able to help me here. I am rebuilding a sbc 350 motor. I got the crank ground .010 on the rod and mains. The bearings are all .010 as well. I had the walls .040 over, new rings and pistons also.

When I put the crank in, I went 75 ft lbs on all main caps. Crank was fine and turned smoothly, and all bearings had 2-3 thousanths clearance which the machine shop told me was just right. When I put the rods and pistons in, again all clearance was good but at 35 ft lbs on cap bolts the crank would not turn at all. The cap nuts are 9/16 don't know what size the stud is, but i noticed that the torque spec is different for all stud sizes. So I even went down to 15 ft lbs on the nuts, and the crank will turn but it turns at 60-70 ft lbs on the harmonic balancer bolt. When the heads are on, it won't turn at all!! So i took it all apart and the bearings are all marked up and in some places the dull silver color is gone, its a really shinny chrome color, all the coating is wore off on the edges and sometimes the middle of the bearing, even the main bearings which i thought were turning smooth are scuffed up. so i asume the bearing clearance is wrong, but why would the plastiguage show that its OK, and why would both sets of bearings be so far off. Am i maybe messing up the measuring? I'm using the red plastiguage.

What should i check for? any help would be greatly appreciated

thanx