He doesn't have the plastigage paper lined up with the plastigage on the journal, but you can tell its right at .001!

Snowman, there are many things that can be causing your issue, all of which are well beyond your ability to check or correct by yourself. You need to take the crank to a machine shop and have the journals mic'ed and let the machinist tell you if it needs to be reground. You have to realize if its never been reground before, it can easily be out of round by over .001, and you could likely be measuring the clearances on the areas of the journals that are the larger diameters with less wear on them. Also, the main housing bores in the block could also have tightened up, which is common on engines that are as old as this one and have never been rebuilt or align honed before(other than from the factory), all of these things are normal and are often the main stumbling block for guys like you that try to rebuild them without having the block or crank checked out before hand. There are so many variables that are just beyond your current knowledge of understanding that makes it hard for you to see the big picture. The bearings you have could also be the problem, they are man-made and not beyond being defective, but until you start eliminating other things that are common repair items related to engine building such as the housing bores or crank journals, you are spinning your wheels and can end up throwing good money out the window if you don't make sure the block is in good shape before you begin sinking money into parts.



Class III CNC Machinist/Programmer