Clearances are the tiny spaces between engine parts. You measure them so the parts have room to move and still get enough oil, without touching each other when things heat up.
Break-in is what you do right after building or rebuilding an engine. It’s a careful start-up and driving routine meant to let new parts wear in smoothly.
First startup is the very first time you run the newly built engine. You’re checking that it has oil pressure and that nothing is leaking or acting wrong before you let it work harder.
Term
bleed it
“Bleeding” means getting air out of the system. That helps fuel or fluid flow correctly so the engine starts and runs right.
“Common rail” is a diesel fuel system where fuel is stored under high pressure in a shared line. The engine can then inject it more precisely, which helps it start and run smoothly.
Bearings are the parts that let the crankshaft and other moving parts spin smoothly. During an engine build, they have to be installed correctly and lubricated so they don’t wear out quickly.
McBee is a company that makes replacement bearings for Cummins engines. The speaker is talking about which bearing options they prefer for performance builds.
The speaker is talking about making around 1000 horsepower and whether the bearings can still handle it. It’s an example of how strong the bearing setup is supposed to be.
Rod bearings are the bearings that connect the pistons’ rods to the crankshaft. They take a lot of stress and can wear out if the engine has debris or poor lubrication.
Term
HX
HX is a bearing version with extra clearance. That extra space can help the bearing work better with oil and high-stress conditions.
Contaminants or debris are small particles that can get into the engine oil. If they reach the bearings, they can cause extra wear—so bearing material hardness matters.
A “P bearing” is another bearing material hardness/grade the speaker is comparing against H and V bearings. The key point is that P is softer than H, and the discussion is about matching bearing hardness to extreme cylinder pressure and heat.
“H bearing” is a type of bearing material/grade. The harder it is, the more it can handle load—but in very hot, high-stress diesel builds it may break down (delaminate).
Drag racing engines are pushed to extremes, so the bearings have to survive huge stress. The speaker says racers look at how much the bearing gets deformed to judge whether the engine tune is too aggressive.
The PRI show is a big motorsports trade event. The speaker is saying they heard these bearing details from industry reps there.
Company
Molly reps
“Molly reps” refers to representatives from a company associated with bearing/coating materials (likely a bearing supplier). The speaker uses their input as evidence for why certain bearing types (V bearings) were requested for high-heat diesel applications.
Company
Van Hazley
Van Hazley is mentioned as the requester behind a bearing-material decision. The speaker is using that story to explain why V bearings were developed for tough diesel racing conditions.
Delaminating means the bearing material starts separating into layers. In extreme diesel builds, heat and stress can make that happen, which is why bearing material choice matters.
Concept
bearing reuse after wear
They’re talking about whether you can put bearings back in after running the engine. The host says the V bearings looked almost unused, while the H bearings showed some wear. The underlying idea is that you judge bearing condition and decide if reuse is safe.
Concept
over the road bearing
“Over the road” (OTR) refers to long-distance, real-world service use—typically contrasted with race-shop or performance-engine use. The host says they don’t have great data on whether these bearings perform well in OTR conditions, implying that duty cycle and operating environment can change wear and longevity. This is a practical reliability consideration for engine builders.
A dry start is when the engine starts before a full oil film has formed between critical bearing surfaces. That increases boundary friction and wear risk, so builders sometimes choose coated bearings or specific clearances to reduce damage during those first seconds.
Bearing clearance is the tiny space between the bearing and the moving shaft. Getting it right helps ensure oil can flow and the parts don’t rub or run too loose.
Engine assembly is putting all the internal engine parts together correctly. With bearings, the way they’re installed matters a lot because it affects how smoothly and safely the engine runs.
A high spot is a localized raised area caused by debris, machining residue, or a particle trapped between mating surfaces. In a bearing fit, a high spot can prevent the bearing from seating fully, effectively reducing clearance and creating a concentrated contact area. That concentrated contact is what leads to hot spots and accelerated wear.
A hot spot is a part of the bearing area that gets much hotter than the rest. It usually happens when the bearing is rubbing too much in one place or doesn’t have enough oil between surfaces. That extra heat can damage the bearing quickly.
A lint-free rag is meant to wipe without shedding fibers. When you’re installing bearings, stray fibers can end up trapped and interfere with how the bearing seats. That can change the tiny clearances and cause rubbing or overheating.
Term
porous cast iron
Porous cast iron can hold onto tiny bits of dirt or fibers. If you wipe it with something that sheds lint, that lint can get stuck in the surface. Then it can end up where the bearing sits, causing problems with fit and clearance.
Main bearings are the supports inside the engine block that hold the crankshaft in place. They help the crankshaft spin smoothly without metal-to-metal contact.
Car
2JZ motors
The 2JZ is a well-known Toyota engine people often modify and build for big power. The speaker is using it as an example of a method someone used when assembling bearings.
ATF is a type of oil used in automatic transmissions. The idea in this segment is that it can act like a temporary lubricant so the bearing seats correctly and any small debris gets pushed out before everything dries.
The saddle is the metal surface in the engine where the bearing shell sits. If that surface isn’t clean, the bearing may not seat correctly, which can cause wear or oiling problems.
A crankshaft journal is the smooth, machined part of the crankshaft where the bearings support it. The bearings need the right clearance on that surface to stay lubricated. Checking the journal helps avoid bearing problems.
A rod journal is the part of the crankshaft that the connecting rod bearing sits on. The bearing needs the right tiny clearance around that surface so oil can lubricate it. If the fit is off, the engine can wear out faster.
Oil clearance is the tiny space between an engine bearing and the metal shaft it rides on. The right amount of space helps oil flow so parts don’t rub together. If the gap is wrong, the engine can wear faster or even get damaged.
A bore gauge is a precision tool for measuring the diameter of a hole or machined surface. Engine builders use it to check clearances between parts. If you don’t use it correctly, you can get misleading measurements.
An undersized crank means the crankshaft’s bearing surfaces are smaller than they should be. That affects the tiny clearance where oil has to do its job. If it’s too small or too big, bearings can wear out quickly.
Calipers are a measuring tool with jaws or a sliding scale. Builders use them to double-check sizes so they don’t assemble something that’s slightly off.
Vertical clearance is the very small gap between the crankshaft and the bearing. The gap has to be just right so oil can lubricate properly and the bearing doesn’t overheat.
“Torque it” means tightening the bolts to a specific tightness setting. That tightness affects the bearing’s final fit and gap, which is why it matters for engine longevity.
Bearing crush is how the bearing shell is slightly deformed when the cap bolts are tightened. That deformation helps the bearing sit correctly and keeps the oil gap in the right range.
The crush amount is how much the measuring strip gets squished when the bearing is tightened. More or less squish tells you whether the gap is too tight or too loose.
A plastic gauge is a clearance-checking strip (often supplied with bearing kits) used to measure bearing clearance during assembly. After torquing, the crushed thickness is compared to a scale to calculate the actual gap between the crank journal and bearing.
Taper means the surface isn’t perfectly the same size from one end to the other. That can make the clearance vary across the bearing, which can lead to uneven wear.
Concept
engine rebuild (pull/rebuild/install)
An engine rebuild means taking the engine apart, fixing or replacing worn parts, and putting it back together. The speaker is saying they had to do it quickly because they had an event coming up.
Repeatability means you can measure something again and again and get the same answer. If your readings keep changing, you can’t trust the clearance you’re trying to set.
Term
out of clearance
Being “out of clearance” means the bearing gap is outside the specified target range. Too tight can reduce oil flow and risk overheating or accelerated wear; too loose can reduce oil pressure and increase bearing movement and wear.
Some engine bearings have a little tab (tang) that lines them up in the rod or housing. Putting it in the right direction helps keep the bearing from moving around.
The rod cap is the part that bolts onto the connecting rod to hold the crankshaft in place. It also helps ensure the bearing sits correctly.
Concept
bearing cap orientation (mirror-image halves)
Some bearing sets are made so the top and bottom halves are mirror images. The way you install the rod caps determines which side those halves end up on, and that affects alignment and oiling.
A billet rod is a stronger, more precisely machined connecting rod made from a solid chunk of metal. It still needs the right bearings installed correctly so the engine oil can do its job.
Tangs are the little tabs on the bearing that help hold it in the right spot. They also help prevent the bearing from spinning and keep oil pathways aligned.
Term
rod go in the engine
They’re talking about the connecting rods—parts that connect the piston to the crankshaft. Some rods only fit correctly one way, so putting them in the wrong direction can prevent proper clearance or alignment.
Cummins is the company that makes the diesel engines they’re building. Here they’re saying different Cummins engine designs can require parts to be installed in a specific direction.
The piston is the part that moves up and down in the cylinder. Here, they’re saying piston shape can affect which way other parts (like the rod) can be installed.
VP44 is a specific type of fuel-injection pump used on some older Cummins diesels. The point here is that with that setup, some internal parts can be installed in a different orientation than on other Cummins engines.
Term
symmetrical
“Symmetrical” means the piston’s shape is the same on both sides. If it’s symmetrical, it can sometimes allow parts to be installed in either direction.
Term
center pin
The “center pin” is the wrist pin that connects the piston to the connecting rod. If it’s centered, it can make the piston/rod setup work either way; if it’s offset, it usually has to go one way.
A stroker build makes the engine bigger by using a crank that moves the piston farther. Because the piston and rods travel differently, you have to check that parts still fit without hitting.
Term
engine over to get ready for the next rod
They’re turning the engine by hand during assembly to make sure parts don’t hit each other. It’s a quick check before you fully commit to the next step.
The block skirt is part of the engine block near the bottom of the cylinder. If the connecting rod hits it, something is physically interfering and the engine won’t assemble correctly without fixing the fit.
A mating surface is the part of each component that touches the other part. If there’s dirt or grit there, the bearing may not sit right and can cause problems later.
The crankshaft has tiny internal channels that carry engine oil to the moving parts. Cleaning those channels helps make sure the bearings get clean oil right away.
A bore brush set is a set of small brushes used to scrub inside engine parts. The goal is to remove leftover grit so everything fits and lubricates properly.
An air compressor is the tool that makes pressurized air. In this context, it’s used to blow parts clean and dry so moisture doesn’t get trapped in the engine.
The oil control ring is the ring that helps keep oil from getting into the combustion area. If it has an installation mark, you want it facing the right direction so it can scrape oil properly.
Directional washers are washers whose stamped shape (for example, one rounded edge and one square edge) is intended to face a specific direction relative to the clamping load. Installing them “backwards” can change how they sit and how they resist movement under load.
The cylinder wall is the inner surface of the engine’s cylinder bore where the piston rings and piston skirt move. The speaker’s advice about snap-ring orientation implies the ring should be positioned to reduce the chance of it being forced into the wrong area under load.
The wrist pin is the small axle inside the piston that connects the piston to the rod. If it isn’t held correctly, parts can wear out faster or get damaged.
Annealing is a heat-treatment process that softens metal and changes its microstructure. Here, the speaker is describing how repeated stress can alter the retaining material’s behavior, making it easier to deform or lose its intended shape.
Term
broach
To broach here means to cut or chew into material as it’s forced in. They’re talking about how the shape of the edge can make it easier or harder to damage the aluminum.
Head stud washers are washers used with cylinder-head studs to distribute clamping load and help maintain proper torque and sealing. The speaker mentions them as part of the broader engine-building discussion, implying they’re another area where correct setup matters.
Blow-by is when some of the engine’s combustion gases slip past the piston rings instead of staying in the cylinders. That can reduce efficiency and can also lead to more oil mess inside the engine.
Total Seal is a company that makes piston rings. Here they’re being used as an example of a ring setup that uses a special dry lubricant to help the rings seat correctly.
A dry lubricant is a light coating you apply to help reduce friction right when the engine is first running. The goal is to help the piston rings “wear in” and seal properly.
Lubricity means how well the oil prevents friction and wear. During the first start, it helps protect the engine parts until oil can circulate everywhere.
Cross hatching is the crisscross pattern you can see on the inside of the cylinder. It helps hold oil there so the engine is lubricated, especially during break-in.
“Welding the gear” means using welding to change or repair a gear. Welding can strengthen it, but it also needs careful work so it stays straight and strong.
That “key” is a small part that keeps a gear locked to the crankshaft. If it breaks, the gear can slip out of position, and the engine’s timing can go wrong fast.
The Tesla Semi is a fully electric truck used to move freight. Instead of a gasoline or diesel engine, it uses electric power to drive the wheels. People bring it up when talking about how it handles heavy work and whether it can stay reliable.
Engines have gears that keep everything synchronized. If a key or dowel that locates the crank gear fails and the gear moves, the cam and fuel/ oil timing can become wrong, which can cause major problems.
Cam timing is when the camshaft opens the valves during the engine cycle. If the crank gear shifts, the cam can end up opening at the wrong time, which can hurt performance and reliability.
Term
crank sensor vs cam sensor
Sensors tell the computer where the engine parts are. The crank sensor tracks crank position, and the cam sensor tracks cam position—if the timing relationship is wrong, the computer may not be able to correct it fully.
MIG welding is a common welding method that uses a wire and gas to make the weld. When you weld on engine parts, you have to control the weld size and cleanup so you don’t mess up seals or bearing surfaces.
The crank journal is a smooth, exact surface on the crankshaft where the engine’s bearings sit. If you weld near it, you can’t let weld material or damage get onto that surface.
A crank seal keeps oil from leaking around the crankshaft. If welding makes the bead too thick, it can hit or ruin the seal, so you may need to grind it down.
The BYD Seal is an electric car. The podcast mentions a crank seal, which is a part that helps keep fluids from leaking. It’s brought up because certain repairs or work can accidentally damage that seal if you’re not careful.
TIG welding is another welding method that’s usually more precise and cleaner. The idea here is that with TIG you can make the weld without it causing trouble, especially if you’re using a wear sleeve.
LIVE
Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Power Jumping Podcast today
is episode number two. This is like a continuation of last
week's episode of engine building tips and tricks. I mean,
last episode, if you didn't watch it, you want to go back
because we're taking on from that. We talked about clearances,
different lubes we use, different compounds use to assemble
engines. A lot of good data there. And it went so long, we
kind of ran out of time. So we thought we have a lot more to
give. So we're back for round two, round two engine building
tips and tricks.
And to take that step further, then we're going to go over
like break in breaking. Yeah, well, get a lot of questions
about that break in first startup. We had a lot of
questions on that. So tune in if you're interested in learning
how to do that properly.
Yeah, one of my goals with this is I hope somebody somewhere has
the ability to build an engine in their garage, get a clean
garage, get the right tools, because it is highly satisfying.
Oh my gosh. Yeah, you work on it for so long. You're measuring
all this stuff, you're making all these decisions. And then
you're like, I every single time I get so like worked up, I'm
like, dude, like about to hit the key. I'm like, I really hope I
did it all right. That's something awesome about a
common rail, like 12 album, you're sitting there, you got to
bleed it, you kind of like, like, okay, well, I got to bleed it
first. And, and you finally get it going, whatever, common rail,
you're like, it's going to start within like a couple of
seconds. Like, here we go, fingers crossed. But it is very
rewarding to build an engine. So I highly recommend it. I mean,
if you guys want to try this, it's super fun. We're hoping to
give you a bunch of information to kind of, you know, alleviate
some of your fears, give you some tips, you don't mess up your
first engine build. And yeah, so kind of last time we were kind
of talking about bearings, it's kind of we're left off and how
to install bearings and lube bearings.
Yep. So I was going to start with a with H bearings, P bearings,
whatever, like, yes.
McBee sells like a Cummins replacement bearing. Molly AI
sales comes. Yeah, lots of people, lots of companies do I if
I'm building a higher performance of motor, I like the
Molly bearings, they have their P bearing, which is I don't
really like what it's better than try metal. It's very it's
very similar to stock replacement Cummins bearing. I
thought it was a little bit better than factory Cummins
bearing, but people think like, Oh, once you pass like 600
horsepower, they're not capable. Not really true. I've run
those at 1000 horsepower for a while. My original Tina motor
was made, which was 1000 horsepower beat the crap out of
it. It had P bearings and they looked great. If I was on a
budget, P bearings are considerably cheaper. I would
run P bearings. If I was building 1000 horsepower motor, I
would run P bearings on the main and then H bearing on the
rods, because that motor had considerably more rod bearing
wear than main bearing wear. But if you're above 1000, I think
H bearings are our good choice. And then with H bearing, you
get the HX. So that way that's your extra clearance version. We
went over that in the last podcast. But I heard a lot of
things about like, Oh, H bearing, like it's not your longevity
bearing, you, you don't put that in a tow truck motor, you want
to last, you know, half a million miles. Not the main
difference on the H bearing that I found is they're harder
bearing. And so factory bearings are soft. So if you do, do get
contaminants or debris in there, it will embed in the bearing
and not continue to spin around and cause havoc in there. So
it's almost like a sponge, so to speak, where an H bearings
harder, the crank is not going to damage it as much. But if
there is hard metal in there, it's also not going to absorb
into it as well. It's going to just keep spinning around and
make them debris till it, you know, ejects no oil doesn't stay
stationary in any bearing, it works its way through there.
That's how it pulls the heat out. It's going to pull the debris
out and the filter is going to catch it. So I don't think maybe
at the million mile mark, there might be a difference. But I
mean, to be honest with you, if you're building a high
performance engine, you're not trying to make it last a million
miles anyway, because it's not quickly, you talked about the
H bearing is harder than the P bearing. We've also used V
bearings. That's what's going to cover the bearings like the
softest things. I mean, you can scratch, you can be careful,
you'll put a groove on one of those things. Those are very soft.
What were those designed for? So V bearings, they that's kind of
more of like a top fuel dragster top alcohol bearing. On top
fuel dragsters, the one of the ways that the team gets feedback
on how aggressive their tune up which, which is how lean they
ran the engine and how much timing they ran is how much it
squishes the bearing out. So on the rod bearings, if they're
have too much cylinder pressure, the bearing is wider like it
like mushrooms out so they want a soft bearing. The theory
there is if you overload the bearing, the bearing is not
going to get caught by the rod or the crank and spin, the bearing
is going to kind of like give way and move out of the way.
Supposedly when I was talking to the Molly reps at like the PRI
show, they said that Van Hazley specifically requested V
bearings be made because on their super stock diesels, they
had some where they had enough heat build up that the hard H
bearings were delaminating and a P and a not a P bearing a V
bearing will not delaminate. It's soft enough that it can't
catch on the rod journal enough to actually delaminate and move.
It's just going to kind of push down and squish out of the way.
And so that's kind of what's, you know, supposedly the purpose
of that. And I've ran a couple of motors that have like just
hybridized bearings in them like some V's, some H's and the V's
always look brand new when you take them back out. Like regardless
of like whatever it ate or whatever, like you'll have a
little bit of wear on the H bearing, the V bearings, you could
use them again. Like the V bearings I used were actually from
the blow up engine. So like they've seen some crap and they
look great. V bearings are another level of expense above
more than an H bearing. They're more rare. No, a lot of people
have them. In fact, years ago, one of our purchasing people
made a mistake and bought a whole slew of V bearings thinking
they were buying H bearings. And we we still sit on those. We
still have some in stock because most people don't know what
they are. I don't know. I don't know. Have you ever ran in on a
street tow engine? I have not run V bearings in a street. I've
only ran them in performance engines. I don't know that what
would happen. I've ran lots of V bearings because they're
plentiful in the race shop. I've been through lots of engines
to get short life. And I won't say I've ever seen a bearing
problem. My engines that last five runs. So we're good. So I
don't have great data if that's a great over the road bearing.
Maybe it is. Maybe it's not but they are very soft and you can
feel it in your hands. And yeah, I say if you're in your
fingernail cross that you'll scratch a groove right into
they're very soft. And if you want to one up your bearings
beyond that now there's also other brands. There's King makes
bearings. A lot of people coatings are becoming popular in
the Mali bearings. If they have a K at the end of the part
number, that's their nomenclature for coated. So you can get
coated bearings. Generally, it seems like coated bearings are
better for dry starts. I don't to me I would more use them as a
tool to tighten up bearing clearance a little bit if I
need it just a little bit tighter. I'd be like, Hey, let's
let's coat this and then it'll tighten up my oil clearance a
little bit. I don't have enough data to say if it's
beneficial or not. There's factory applications with all
the start stop, they're doing that on a lot of factory
bearings. And so I do believe there's some data that the dry
starts are better with coated bearings. But I've never snatched
a bearing because of a dry start. So it's like once again, I
don't know.
The next thing we should talk about with bearing specifically
aside from the types of bearings is how you install them.
There's like definitely lots of thoughts and data and this is
actually probably one of the more critical things in engine
assembly that you get right.
Yeah, and I remember the first engine I worked here for like a
week. And you had me starting to help you assemble an engine and
you were like, Yeah, you're like, make sure between the bearing
and the block is clean, like between the bearing and the crank
matters less, like obviously everything should be clean, but
it matters less. The bearing to the block is where like you have
to make sure that's clean. And I remember thinking like, What?
That's so backwards. Like, why? And you're like, Well, there's a
little piece of speck of speck of something in there that'll
create a high spot in the bearing. And then that's where
it'll start to, you know, tighten up your clearance and
rub hot spot. And you can see you'll see little dots on your
bearings. If there's dirt between the bearing and the surface
it's mated to, it's a high spot. You know, we're talking very,
very small measurements here that we're having clearance of.
And so the muscle and so one time one place like I've even had
trouble is you go to clean the block and they use a quote unquote
lint free rag with the blocks porous cast iron, and there's
machine holes in there, it'll grab lint off of a rag or a paper
towel. It's kind of hard to get that quote unquote spotless
before you actually snap the bearing half in there. So I mean,
you guys have tried a couple of different techniques. What have
you found?
I mean, a couple techniques. I like to use rubber gloves and
break clean and actually wipe with rubber gloves and break
clean that off again. I don't like to use a rag or anything.
I just rubber gloves. It doesn't leave anything.
You just got done hosing down break, whatever it is somehow
cleaning your block. You don't, there's nothing, there shouldn't
be anything. Stop there latex gloves. Let's be honest.
They could be the blue nitro ones latex or get eaten by the
break. I don't use break clean. I just use my palm. Yeah, you
use your palm. Yeah, no rag, something slice your hand open
like a man.
So I use that I know. And then and Meyer likes to I like to do as
well. He actually will before he puts the bearing in he'll coat
the saddle and the bearing with break clean. Yep. Just so you
grab the we're using where people know what's the saddle.
That's the place to bearing goes into it's a semi circle. Yeah,
or the main cap. It's the receiving section of the block
for your main bearing. Yeah, it's my logic there is I just got
done cleaning everything and it's dry because you know you break
clean it off. It's that for a little bit. It's dry. I like to
just spray the bottom of the bearing and then the saddle and
that way it's like wet and flowing and I'll push that bearing
in that way if somehow there's a little piece of something that
landed like whatever when you push that bearing down it sprays
that break clean out which will help hopefully take any kind of
debris and wash it away. And so it's like that last ditch just
to make sure everything is extremely clean and I can say
like you told me that long time ago where there's a hot there's a
high spot it'll create a little spot I've never seen that any
engine I've ever built. So every engine bill I see that it's
wrong because I use blue paper towels the one I know I didn't
watch a video a long time ago about a guy I think it makes 2JZ
motors maybe and he would talk about J from we was at real
street now he has his own thing. He talked about he used ATF
between the bearing and the saddle and his logic was just
like yours but he his logic was further like when you actually
torque it that's when you get the real pressure from the
bearing it'll hydraulically press it out and this gives it a
medium to take out any debris or by the time you torque it
it'll be dry. Yeah, you're able to get it out with just as long
as you clean it well enough you've had luck with great
clean I'm just finger pressing the only reason I've done that
is because I've pulled apart engines that behind the main
bearing is dry. I'm like if it's dry back there and you can see
like you can see the part number of the bearing in in the
saddle like it obviously sat in there pretty hard like if I
loop that it's just gonna make it more likely to spin in the
future. Yeah, that could be overthinking it. That's why he's
very clean is because then it just flows out and then it dries
and now it's like a good contact face for the bearing just to
seat in. I did try the ATF I wanted to try it once I had good
results. I didn't I didn't spend a very over thinking the crap
out of it doesn't matter. I do feel like I do like it to be very,
very clean. Don't use a rag on the between the bearing and where
you're going to put the bearing in rod or main or saddle of the
block and clean it out with like your like a latex glove or
just a palm of your hand, spray it again, push a bearing in or
put some something in there so you have a medium for anything
that's microscopic to come out when you press it in there.
Now people are going to ask since we're talking about bearings
when you actually go to assemble this cap, you know, you're
talking about stuff squirting out. Some guys like to lay a piece
of plastic gauge across the journal of the rod or the journal
of the crank before they they they do that in there as like a
final check. Now you feel like there'd be total waste of time
if you had properly measured your oil clearance with calipers
and I think it's waste of time. I think you will find it's a
waste of time. I think it's more like I feel good that I did
it right. So I feel good thing rather but if I mean if you
caught some things somewhere, you should be sure glad you did
it. So early in my early days, I use plastic gauge and then I
I one upped in life and I use a bore gauge and I felt really
accomplished and I completely missed the fact that the dial
bore gauge only spun around twice instead of the four times
it was supposed to because it was an undersized crank and I
didn't realize it until I did my safety just make sure with
the plastic gauge and it didn't even crash. I'm like what the
hell? Wait a minute. And so I started looking at my I did it
again. I like re-involved it on. Make sure there's no gaps in
those big crush and I was like what and then I realized that
my um my crank was undersized that I was trying to use and
because it was a 10,000 style, it just didn't spin around as
many times and so the number looked plausible and believable
but realized it wasn't spinning around enough. So two things
I've done to help prevent that type problem. First of all, I'm
more familiar with dial bore gauge but now when I set up the
dial bore gauge, I try to make it so it never goes more than
like one one revolution. That way when you put it in the
block, if it spins around four times, you know there's a
problem. If it doesn't spin around at all, it doesn't
make any contact. You know there's a problem. So that's more of
my solution there. If I'm at all questioning or like I feel
like I'm being hasty and I could have made a mistake, it's
really easy to at least throw one plastic piece of plastic
gauge in the engine just to make sure you were in the ball
part or you can use calipers just to really dummy check
yourself. So I can definitely see that but if you're not
sure about yourself, it takes very little time. So just
plastic. It's just a dumb sound a little bit more dumb it
down. That's kind of mean to say to make this better
explain. What is plastic gauge real quick Todd? I mean you
can help plastic gauge is literally a plastic that's
almost like the thickness of a human hair or something.
There's different thicknesses depending on what you're doing
red and green thing like that. It's a little piece of plastic
and it looks like a round tiny little piece of hair. You
snip it off and you put it between the crank and the
bearing or the crank and the rod bearing. So you put it where
the actual oil would be lubricating and usually on the
vertical clearance because you kind of want to make sure you
have enough clearance to the top you know right between the
ends of the bearing right in the center of the bearing and
then you're going to torque it and then that's going to
crush and it's a it's an engineered plastic that's
designed to crush a certain amount depending on how much
clearance you have. So you pull it back off and if that
plastic round things you know squish to eighth of an inch
wide you have a little measuring stick on that piece of
paper it came in and you can measure how fat that thing
crushed and I'll tell you how much clearance you have. So
it's a double check system to make sure you did something
right. Like I say he caught his one cranked because it
didn't crush it like why is this not crushing? Yeah because
there's nothing to crush it. There's too much clearance to
crush that particular. Yeah instead of four thousands I had
24,000 clearance. Yeah. Wow. So so plastic gauge is
available anywhere. I mean Napa auto zones but I mean it's
well most places have plastic gauges. It's a good thing to
have. Yeah and there's a few brands GleeVite makes some
there's a you know there's household names and after
market but yeah it's basically just a little engineered
crush. The one thing I do like about plastic gauge if you're
not super awesome with a dial bore gauge you can have major
problems like my head but if you're kind of like mid level
you might not have checked both sides of the bearing as
well and when you put plastic gauge you get a visual
representation if there's taper in there and it can kind of
like it's help you see stuff. I almost like it because it
lets you see maybe maybe it's a way to check on your
machine shop. Hey their their clearance is right but all
these journals are tapered a little bit. Yeah plastic is
squished more on one end of than the other like okay it's
getting wider like I don't have a straight it's not
true. I must say when you get better at it one day when you
get better at a dial bore gauge you can see all that as
well. Well I know you can but I'm just saying if you're
kind of a if you're kind of a mid level dial bore gauge user
entry level where you miss three whole revolutions. Yes
no mid level but so I don't have a problem with that and
like I said the green goes one to three thousandths the red
goes two to two to and I have to say on your two to five.
Yeah I don't remember but I think the red goes two to five.
Yeah and like on your point too like when I was building the
shorty motor I built like I came home from a trip and I had
an event in three days and so I had to pull rebuild install
motor in three days. It was like four a.m. and I'm measuring
the main clearances and I don't know why but I was probably
struggling just from sleep deprivation or something but
I could not get a good measurement. I was like I put
plastic gauge in and I was like it's good we're running it.
I'm like I don't know what my clearances are but but it
works according to plastic gauge they're like three and a
half. I'm like perfect we're doing it. Plastic gauge
is good you're probably gonna be alright. It's just like I
kept getting different measurements and looking back I
think I was earlier in my dial board gauge I bet I was
transferring heat and that's something I found is that you
want to wear gloves. I don't wear gloves often but one time I
do is when I'm doing all that because if you transfer heat
into your micrometer now it's going to read different and
so then you'll drive yourself nuts because every time you
measure it it's different it's a different temperature and
it's a different measurement and you're trying to figure it
out and if you don't have repeatability in your
measurements oh it's you can't have confidence you
I mean 1000 is all it takes to be out of clearance like out of
the clearance I would want and so it's it can be aggravating
really quick yeah and you're sitting there getting bad
measurements which means that you sit there getting more
measurements which means you put more heat into it and like
you yeah you go and you measure and you play with you you
hold the caliper so not caliper you want just a fun test at
home like zero your dial board gauge on it hold it just with
your bare hands for five minutes just just hold it like
that measure it again guarantee you it's two three tens
different just because you put heat in the thing
micrometer yeah another thing before we get off bearings
this is kind of you know entry level you know assembly but
it is something someone may have a question about is bearings
have tangs little ways to align them in the actual saddle
some of the rods or something like that may have tangs on
both ends you can put the bearing in backwards or
forwards the real thing you gotta know is that is the each
bearing has a tang the tangs go together so there's two little
tangs and put those little skis go together and the that's
pretty much all you gotta know you're not gonna back or some
that and I'm sure it matters but and sometimes rods are
machined for extra tangs because they want to be compatible
with multiple types of bearings and so this is this is a fun
fact actually so um on a 12 l rod where they are two separate
pieces that are like that are made it together machined but
they're two separate pieces they machine the tangs into let's
just call it the front side of the rod or when you put the the
rod cap on the rod itself the tangs one will be on towards
the rear of the engine will be on the towards the front of the
engine but they're both be on the same side of the rod that's
so when you the reason they do that is so that way you have
the exact same rod bearing top and bottom common rails because
it's a cracked cap they machine that groove into the cap and
the rod before they crack it which so that when you crack it
now when you look at it you have two symmetrical like the
bearings halves are different top and bottom and so there's
the like a mirror image of each other and that's why you'll
have they'll both be on like the same like driver side or
passenger side or whatever it is of the engine but they'll now
both be on the front versus one on the front one on the back
um and then you get a billet rod they give you both options a
lot of them will give you both options that way if you bought
a 12 valve rod set or bearing set it'll work if you have a
common rail bearing set where they are mirrored of each other
they'll still work but like you're saying every single time the
tangs will be on the same side of the rod they'll either
both be on the driver side or passenger side depending on
which way you're installing your rods yes which tangs go
together if you're worried like what am I doing how does
going tangs go together you remember that you'll be fine
tang to tang tang to tang and generally when I put rods in
I put them in cap towards cam so it's like alongside of the
rod towards the oil cooler that gives you the most clearance on
aftermarket camps we've had a lot of people ask which way does
the rod go in the engine and you're like oh well this guy
pulled apart his engine he swears it was this yep you're right
but it probably was depending on the engine the year whatever
they're they they come they're installed both ways from
Cummins depends now depending on what piston you have
well actually the only ones that are reverse compatible is a
VP 44 a 12 valve has to go one way because the bulls offset
common rails have a JJ clearance so they can only go one way
a VP piston is symmetrical it can go either way center pin the
pins in the center like there's nothing like some some
aftermarket piss 24 valve pistons don't even say front
doesn't say anything on it because it doesn't matter you're
like where's the mark to no front a lot of pistons just you
they have a mark for front or an arrow very commonly just
towards the front of the engine the dampener side engine away
from the driver towards the radiator we'll say yep but a
lot of people ask which way does the rod go and I will say
as I played with like boost line rods they will only clear
one way in the block if you put them the other way that kept
towards cam they they wouldn't they wouldn't clear I kind of
feel like I had to flip them around really was like very
disappointing huh and it was the boss on the the cap side was
kind of big around the bolt and it was hitting and I had to go
backwards on it then I because I normally go I normally go the
open sea towards the cam is what I just can't call it which is
kept towards cam long side I remember because the rod is
like a C shape on the open end and so to me see towards
cam makes sense Myers like cap towards cam starts with a C
Todd walks from Meyer what do we do again oh yeah thanks that's
not quite sure I'm sure when you're building a six one
stroker the 12 valve using a six seven crank sometimes the rod
will rub a little bit on the block so what sucks is if you get
that deep in your engine build you've already measured you got
all your clearances set you've installed the bearings and
cranks in there you go to bolt the rod in and you crank the
engine over to get ready for the next rod and it hits on the
block skirt you're like crap now what do I do you put you tent
over whatever you do there no you grind in there and you blow
it out or you can do a Todd and pull the whole thing back
holding back out grinds reclaimed start over reclaimed start
over or you be like a Meyer and you use a six seven block with
a six seven crank problem alleviate problem solve yeah so
anyway yeah so bearings are a big deal getting installed
correct it's a big deal make sure they're the real thing you
need to know they need to be clean between the mating
surface and the bearing that touches it because that stays
there make sure it's clean whatever way you decide to do
that and we've used these methods and have had a good
success and like something you don't think about like when
you're cleaning you're talking about cleaning bearings
cleaning the galleys in the crank as well because the crank
you know you spray it down blow it off whatever there's oil
galleys that connect the rods to the mains if you got your
bore brush set we're gonna you should be brushing the
cranks before you get ready to install that when you get
done you know break cleans one shove shove air through it
make sure it's super super clean one thing that's really nice
and I've been like kind of blessed by it recently with
like doing stuff here at the shop versus at the home shop
is we have like a pretty solid air dryer in the air compressor
it's pretty nice because it's nothing worse than doing
something and also uses a shot of water like mother trucker
that was clean yeah so we got like a air dryer filtration
system that is it's pretty dope but something to consider
like just make sure you drain your tank and whatever else
before you start blowing off all your engine components
yeah so water at a good point just saying one of the perks
seven machine shop with like very expensive TNC equipment is
having dry air one of the best things we did we have two
buildings that um one machine shop the other that has the
engine building room in it and someone along the way made
decision to to justify getting this really big nice
compressor for the machine shop we'll just oh we'll just run
air into the other building oh my gosh it's great I can run
as much air as I want I don't have to listen to a thing and
it's super clean like it's awesome and then yeah it's
great so this is one of the perks it's super nice
all right so pistons are in so pistons let's talk about we
talked about briefly last time uh piston preparation talked
how come it says dunk in a bucket of oil we kind of
talk like like rings they they generally have a mark and the
mark goes up or towards the top of the piston mark towards the
bowl always go up yeah a dot a mark any kind of any kind of
logo like a lot of molly ring some don't have it like some of
the aftermarket pistons will have like a bevel bevel on the
inside of the ring and that goes up a little bevel so if
there's any kind of marking your bevel or something that goes
up towards the cylinder head um the whale rings generally are
reversible I haven't seen they'll have marks yeah I don't know
how they'd be different but they have marks on them I always
just put them up safe rather safe than sorry but I I have
never seen a directional oil control ring but if it does have
a mark you're always safe to put that up um let's talk about
cylinder wall preparation and kind of do two different you
miss the circlips all right now I was going to say are they
necessary are they not necessary we've made 1200 now okay if
you're the famous joshford cormick supposedly he left a
circlip off and that's why his engine blip years ago so much
drama about that I can promise that that was not the case
but whatever yes makes your circlips are inside but on
that front like some people so it is a good idea to make sure
those are fully seated but I also like to put them towards the
bottom of the piston like the gap in the circlip I'll put
towards the bottom of the piston doesn't matter at all no but
doesn't make me feel warm and fuzzy knowing that the
accelerations of the piston is it couldn't possibly like
could also make this the snap ring collapse and get caught
also I do the exact same thing I put it up or down I'm not
really particular on which way I want them I want them in line
with the way it's moving and something that like kind of
hurts my brain a bit so people that don't know washers are
directional like the way they're stamped one side has a
rounded edge one has a square edge and I always put the
square edge against away from the bolt head towards what's
being clamped just like doesn't matter no but it makes me
feel warm and fuzzy a snap ring is the same way it's stamped out
it has a rounded edge and it has a square edge and I always
used to put the rounded edge kind of same thing where the
rounded edge would go out and the square edge would go
against like the pin Josh is actually the one that told me
reverse that that's like that's completely wrong like why
would you want the rounded tapered edge to be the one that
it's pushing against where it could wedge the ring out I'm
like yeah I mean it kind of hurts my brain it feels like
it's backwards but I get it it's right so your square edge of
the snap ring should always go away towards the cylinder wall
towards the cylinder wall away from what you're away and
that's not just wrist pins I mean that can be like basically
anything in life but yeah so yeah we take our wrist
but very serious advice right here in your life
I will say I've had several 12 valves that I've overloaded the
pin and it's flexing and it pushes on the circlips and it
kind of squishes them out into the aluminum and anneals them
and so I've gotten the point where now I put the rounded edge
out because I feel like it's less likely to shear and cut the
aluminum almost can like pack in there and that sharper edge
is never going to wear through the the pin and so to me I've
changed what I do I used to put the rounded edge in because
I was like oh it's slick and smooth that's why I want
against the pin and now I go the other way I put the sharp
square edge in towards the pin the rounded out doesn't broach it
as easy so it doesn't broach through the aluminum is easy
in my mind interesting I mean that makes my brain very happy
because I can put it back in the way I can do it the way I
want to do it but I will say clearly these have been
installed both ways millions of times and there's not a steady
trend of what's right or wrong a piston of wrist clip pins are
probably not thought of that deeply we have issues here sorry
and we think about a lot oh my gosh yeah and cylinder and and
head stud washers we've had we had great discussions about
proper cylinder head washer I remember having this conversation
with John president I was like yeah washers are they're not
really directional but I put them in one way and John's like no
they are 100 percent directional anywhere the way is wrong
I'm like thank you thank you
oh it's that stuff so but I do we're still down in the bottom
end of the trial I want to talk about cylinder wall preparation
because that's a big deal for one you want it really clean but
this is the thing that's going to seal your piston rings to
your cylinder wall it's like the mating thing that has to
happen controls everything blow by power pressure fuel
mileage it's important so there's kind of two ways that I
say I do I usually I do like to use that quick quick seat so
they quick seats they call it from total seal say dry lubricant
it's a film you kind of get it really really clean and you
kind of put some deputy 40 on the cylinder walls and I use a my
latex glove and I'll kind of rub it in there you don't need
very much it's going to work it in there it'll just kind of
start turn that cylinder all nice and green it's a dry lubricant
they call it because the oil kind of needs temperature to work
properly it's kind of the thought or what they're trying to
claim I'm not sure what's the temperature well
it means velocity to do yeah one of the two things I don't
remember but I said on the crank this thing is only good for
your first startup after that it's pointless it's limited to
make your first startup be uh have good lubricity or whatever
you need lubrication on if so and less damage to the ring in
that cranking low speed cranking before you actually can
create a hydrodynamic wedge of oil if you have coated piston
rings it's probably more important you don't want to wear
the coating off I mean obviously your hone is a big deal of
that your extra super extreme plateau hone's a big deal for
but another thing is all people also just mean engine oil
just kind of lube up the walls with engine oil because that's
what I do yeah that's what goes there anyway yeah so I always
have used engine oil I've never used the quick seat but I mean
I don't say one's right or wrong but um the one is they're
they both work and I'm sure most engines in the world use
engine oil the cross hatching is there to hold engine oil
just make sure they're lubed up I mean you don't have to have
like dripping but you do have you want to have it nice and
shiny and good the skirt and the rings because I also need the
way skirt and yes and obviously you've you've lubed up the
pin and the rod bushing while you're in there doing all that
yeah and all you know is floating it needs to be in there
the pain to use oil or I I usually use the assembly lube again
I don't use oil stay lube whatever yeah so for the piston
pin I use the the assembly lube not oil
we're talking about cranks I'll let's let's cover um welding
the gear um I used to think that welding the gear was more
of a 12L problem and then my 1000 horsepower common rail tow
truck semi sheared the key like what never caused a failure
but it was halfway sheared but when I got it back out um and
so yeah I think if you're above 800 horse you should consider
on some good you know stack sometimes on the so let's back
up so you know that people know what they were talking about
on your crank there's a gear the gear turns everything your
camshaft your oil pump your injection pump yep the reason you
thought it was a 12L problem is because 12L has a much higher
load they have higher load and they're also helical
yes and it's wants to pull it off yep but um pushing it on but
yeah yeah and so anyway what happens is if if you there's a
key or a little dowel that aligns the gear on the crank so
everything's in alignment and everything is timed off that
crank gears a little circle and your other gear has two
circles and you line those up together and everything is happy
well if that crank gear starts to move on the crank from the load
now everything's a little bit off yep and so it's a problem and so like on a 12
valve you're that's going to change your cam timing and it'll change your
pump timing um on a com rail it I mean that changes your um
there I guess that's just your cam sensor so your crank sensor wouldn't so
maybe it doesn't have as much effect on a com rail but either way if it
shears that's just completely bad um and it would affect your
timing as well um so I like say above 800 horse I just
weld it in the loft you've asked like how what material I use
I just use like the 70-6 rod and just what I'll do is there is a total I
don't remember I don't remember the numbers now but I try to put the
welds in like four don't go all the way around I do four
different welds and they're about an inch long and I count the teeth and do an
even spread I want to see it's like you weld for five teeth you skip four
teeth you weld for five teeth you skip four teeth and if you do that you have
four symmetrical welds all the way around we have a balancer we balance it
after but if you don't want to balance it after you want to be pretty close
that's what I do I've mig welded them before oh my
hell so um my only advice on that is either get
that that spatter spray to clean up or put masking tape on the
sealing surface of the crank journal but yeah I've I've mig welded we're now
dumber because of what you've just said
oh dear oh my god I know you didn't do I know you're not lying
I guess the other frame I'm sure I guess the other though that's a bit
did you do it in frame I did on one of my trucks
I also welded the cam gear and frame on my truck too oh my gosh
so this was on my 350,000 mile 12 off but if you get that mig bead too big it
will hit the crank seal so you gotta otherwise you have to get in there
with a burr on the assembled engine and just grind that bead down yeah no no
big deal just center any engine engine builder would know what needs to be
done oh my god we know how to do it we do like we like to
TIG weld them on because you got nice and that's something too is that if you run
a just normal seal um you can get a pretty fat bead in there and not
cause problems if you're wearing using a wear sleeve
you gotta keep that bead pretty pretty small to keep that let that ring and
that sleeve fully seat on there so we do that in all of our races I haven't
I haven't ran a crank in anything that wasn't welded for I don't know how long
we all have everything basically and then on the cam side
you don't have to weld so 12 valve you use a cam retainer it's just a bolt on
cam retainer if you're like your factory cams not tapped and you don't
want to have to deal with tapping it you can weld it and that's a suitable
solution no welding a forged gear to a cast cam so it's not
a perfect no really you're just making enough interaction there that it comes
up so it can't actually fall off the end
yeah but I mean and it works fine we've had
we've ripped we've blown engines up with that were properly welded
and the weld still breaks and pulls the material out of the cam either way so
it's not like a super strong structure weld it's kind of more of a
yeah of a just keep stuff from moving but if you can
a cam retainer just like the bolt on cam retainer is the better solution to that
it's not going to crack the welds off and when you want to end up upgrading your
cam in the future you don't have to like try to deburr your welded
crank gear or a cam gear on a common rail this is a common one
um you don't run a cam retainer because it doesn't clear the cover
and you don't weld it because there's no thrust load
yeah the older ones have that helical gear so as a spinning it's wanting to push
that gear off the cam yep cams resisting or the the p pump as it's
resisting and it's wanting to push that cam gear right off the
front of your engine and so it's a very common problem on the on the helical
gear engines not so much on the common rail stuff
yep and if you so if you have a brand new coming
that's going back helical is that thing I've heard yeah there yep they're back
helical now so keep even quiet like it keeps them quiet for sure I mean yeah
if you if you do you listen to I mean you can even in videos and stuff you
listen to like Todd's or a straight cut 12 out sounds oh you can hear
I mean yeah I whatever it's very similar to like a like a super charged hell
oh yeah kind of sound cool super charger wine it's it's almost like that a little
bit it's it is pretty cool yeah fake cut gears
it's one thing that we can agree with um anyway
so yeah you don't have to run anything on so on those cams I'm just kind of
extra I'll use a little bit of green um sleeve retainer
on the cam uh snout before I put it on
just because like why not that way something other than presses holding it
on it's extra it's not necessary but that's what I do
and I don't do the whole thing because you want I want to do the bottom of the
snout that way you get the cam gear on and square it away
before you touch it and then once it's all squared and it's going to go
then you go through the green and that locks it in that last little bit
extra tip I just mig well my car oh my god I know you do I do the same thing
with the crank gears too actually you've only do the I've been going to come
yeah I do the same thing with crank gears too I put
green lock tight on the bottom half of the gear
different reason on that one though for that I just don't want the green up by
the weld because I'll make it maybe your mid-weller wouldn't care but the
TIG welder doesn't like having to chop through green
so I just do that but yeah okay so that's good stuff so
center wall prep crank prep cam prep um we still need to put the cylinder head on
yeah I mean we gotta put a cylinder on it before you put the cylinder head on
you are going to have the gear case on the front and you're going to have the
the cam installed in there but one thing we get questions on is how much piston
protrusion can I have or should I have and you can kind of do some simple math
and figure out let's say your head just rough numbers your head gasket crushes
to what 55 60 thousands yeah 55 I'd probably shoot for 55 000 because if you go
beyond 30 000 piston protrusion there's a good chance if you get it hot and higher p.m
that you can start having contact with cylinder head
most 12 valves I think their max spec is 26 000 but if you are running any kind of
performance cam and you don't have valve reliefs you're going to run that down lower we've
random as low as like a zero deck with no issues there is a slight I would say performance
advantage on getting the piston closer to the cylinder head because it evacuates the cylinder
better it's getting rid of dead space a lot of people call that the quench and like a two stroke
or whatever there is a little bit of a you could say an air jet action when that piston comes up
it really forces all that last little bit of intake charge into the bowl gets a little bit of
swirling and tumbling action going in there so I think that protrusion is good yeah you don't
want to just like go zero deck just to be safe like that high it's like race car stuff yeah you
want I mean really you want as high a compression as you can get away with it's really and so for
piston protrusion it's you just don't want the piston at the head and you don't want the valves
at the piston but most common rails are going to drop in at 20 000 no they so factory spec is like
six to 18 I think I I ran them way tighter and slightly regrets but but that was a that was
piston the valve not actually head like the top of the pistons didn't look like they were smacking
because if you there if they start to smack you'll see like the machining lines of the head
in the top of the piston they didn't but they were very clean like definitely the no carbon
buildup not a lot they're they're black but no buildup but but generally you're going to check
that you're going to want that in the acceptable range of I would say on a race truck no more than
like 24 25 000 something that's really getting hot and spending some rpm you're getting risk
like clearance or protrusion protrusion on the deck and then I mean I don't remember most of your
forged pistons like your diamond stuff that's going to be down your zero deck yeah like most of
your top-end race truck engines are going to be zero like like just straight across very very little
protrusion I'm not saying that's the that's the best thing for performance but it sure is a safe
thing for really high rpm yeah and heat gives you some gives you a lot of more so piston can grow
the rod can grow from our stretch the oil clearance rod bolts shrink I mean yeah all kinds of stuff
can happen at high rpm so but you ever end plenty of rpm with factory pistons yeah so all my race
motors for like scrap have all been like in that factory 18 so I don't know that you would need
to do that I think so I don't yeah for for like I think if you stick to factory spec
you can do a lot I would say that's good to 5000 rpm at least and I would run higher than factory
spec as long as I had piston to valve clearance that I needed just not super super not super super
high I think the one I did where it was clean it was a 49 000 thick head gasket it was a 6 7
and I had like 32 000 piston protrusion so like 17 000 piston to valve or piston to head
it's probably a little on the tight side I'd probably keep it like at least 20 yeah yeah
so the only other final thing I do when I build an engine is I check the protrusion on all the
pistons it gives you an idea if you have a slightly bent rod or something weird where do you check
protrusion because it can vary a lot to begin where you check so I like to use like a little bridge
thing that the spans over so night with it holds an actual dial indicator and I do it right over
the pin boss yeah in the middle there all the pin across because it's going to be more likely
but you can still rock the piston forward and back in there and change that and so it takes a few
measurements and a little a little messing around to get there but to me you just want to check
you know if they're within a couple thousands it's not going to be a problem if one's five
thousands different than the other and it doesn't follow the block which would kind of tell you that
maybe the machine shop machine that that block at an angle you know when they milled it or something
if it doesn't continually go down and one's high one's low there's a good chance that either you
have a poor rod poorly manufactured rod that's not the same or could I've never really seen it be
a piston problem it's always been a slightly bent rod or or a poorly machined block or probably
we have seen if you say my protrusion continues more and more from one to number six it's like I've
straight everyone's higher than the one before it well your blocks not flat it's it's been machining
proper um it's the weird variations like you have high low low low one high and low against
probably a rod issue and obviously the one with more protrusion is going to have more compression
but is that really going to cause I mean I'll bet you could get away with murder on that and it'd still
it'd be fine I can't say on a podcast you could get away with a lot
but um but at the same time it's good to know what that started because if you're below head gasket
later you're like oh man number number five is the same protrusion as one you're like wait a minute
that started not that way you might go hey we're we're starting to bend the rods or we're flattening
the bearing or whatever all right we are halfway through this podcast we haven't even got to the
cylinder head or break and we gotta get moving boys okay so let's talk about top band talking
about last time talking about tappets and lubing putting assembly grease either in the pocket of
the lifter or on the ends of the push rod or both so I probably like you I probably do both
because I'm over maybe you do one by usually probably do both because yeah that way I feel if
I if I missed one I probably didn't miss both yeah and this is something I've seen people do which
like almost aggravates me is they grab one push rod they grab the glue they put it on the bottom
they put it on the top they set that push rod in the motor and they grab another push rod
and they grab that one they glue top bottom or goo the top bottom put in the motor grab the whole
freaking bundle you did it the other way I feel like you're calling me I haven't noticed you it was
not you but like just grab the whole bundle of 12 if I have gloves on I'll grab the whole bundle
because then I'm but if I'm trying to keep my hands kind of clean I'll do probably two at a time
usually glue the sides but it depends on what it's not glue it's grease sometimes we're using
that red snot it like gets on your hands and yeah it's hard to do it if you use assembly grease
then yeah you can do that you want to have those things lubed up and put down in there
and then you want to lube the the cup on the top as well and I usually probably I don't think I lubed
the ball of the actual rocker I think I just lubed the cup and that's enough and I stick the ball in
so depending on what you do you're also all your rocker assemblies either 12 valve or common rail
you're lubing the pins you kind of skip the whole setting the head down oh my gosh so you need to
put a head guys get on before you sit the head down yes and you're not putting there and you're
not putting the head studs in first some people try to do that that's hard hard to put it on it's
really hard to put all the head studs in and put a head down over two in sometimes two so if you
don't have dowels it's yeah if you have if it's a firing gasket now we're getting exactly where I
want to go this discussion because guys have questions all the time what do I do with the
dowels what if I 14 mil hardware what if I have fire firings so all right I will so if you do not
have firings then in which case you're just setting the gasket on setting the head on use dowels
you're great and then just set it on you guys a factor you can scratch the block around a little
bit like obviously don't hurt the block but don't be stupid but like you get close I mean kind of
move it around yeah and you can like eyeball them like I'm a quarter inch off boom click it pops
down you're good if you have a firing gasket back in the day Josh and I would put super glue on the
firing and put it into the head we never had a problem with that I think we were like we were
mindful of the possible issues of there being a clump of super glue and not seeding it whatever
so we always like spin it and like really spread that super glue out since then I've had multiple
people like yeah I did what you guys said and and now my head gasket's blown and I'm like well you
could have high centered the firing because the super glue super glue gets hot melts out now you
got a loose firing clearance so what I do now is I put the head gasket down on the dowels
and I put the firing in the head gasket it can't move that's a little more risky because if you
you can get a firing offset a little bit so what you do is I put two studs in I set the head down
on those studs that way you know the head just dropped straight down and then before you clamp
anything in place like just kind of look at the gap between the head and the block in all four
corners if you have a firing like you should have call it ten tenish thousands of crush that means
that head should be up and that gasket should be floating about ten thousands if you have a firing
out of the groove you'll have fifty thousands of crush and that head will be up fifty thousands
it's pretty easy to spot the difference of two being ten and fifty thousands and so
it's just like a double check make sure everything's seated correctly and then you can start putting
your studs in and cranking them down if I usually use 14 millimeter hardware on my engines which
means my dowels are no longer there because we have to take them out when you split the firing
then you can make then so where it's got half a groove in the blocks that's what I like to do
then you can the firings become your dowels yep you can omit the dowels completely you have to be
let's just again you have to be careful just make sure your head is good and it's centered
and you gotta make sure you probably should count on the the same shop that did your
block machining is the same shop that did your firing your head machining because
now that is your dowel it's pretty precision yeah it needs to be right up and then then
literally it looks like you go put two studs in hey guys get on put the firings in the groove
which is in the head gasket drop down and I've never had any issues with that and we've had
calls of guys doing this exact thing like you've talked about and they're like hey how do you get
the head studs in there and they don't realize that 14 mil head studs do not go through factory
heads unless they're drilled out for it right yeah so hopefully all that was done before the head
was all assembled and cleaned and ready to go but but yeah no dowels are totally appropriate on a
split firing just let the firing do it you can cut down 14 millimeter dowels and make them really
thin and do that or like d and j they oversized the dowels in the block in the head so that they
can make a fat dowel that's what they use i you know to me that's extra work for i guess it makes
stuff idiot proof but you got split firings you really don't need that but maybe in non situations
it's nice i mean i can totally see like we are being very we know the problems we're being careful
but if just anyone maybe that hasn't installed 50 head gaskets before i could see where they'd have
problems but either way you can i run a reamer i put the the factory dowels in the lathe run a
you know nine sixteenths reamer through it and so i've actually i think i've always just run
dowels because i'm also kind of not that right but yeah but okay so now the heads down you've
torqued it down now you're installing the push rod you just talked about you torque it down make sure
you get the washers right otherwise oh my kind of catastrophic failure you have to come over there
and back and yeah round side up torching down flat side down on top of that if it's a 12 valve
you can't fully torque it down because the rocker arm the valve train is held with the head stud
and so on a 12 valve i like to go if it's a head stud let's say goes to 125 or 150 foot
pounds i like to torque it up to about 50 foot pounds with just the you know 20 that i can get
in there and the last six head studs i install with the rocker pedestals i don't take those other
ones up to torque until i get them all you can do them all at the same time but i like to get those
other ones there because that kind of holds it down on the fire ring where the dowels and it's
not moving but 50 is not enough in my mind to you know tip the head weird to make it torque weird
you're kind of at your initial so that's what i like to do on a 12 valve on a 24 valve it doesn't
matter you know that yeah since you're superior you can just do whatever you want absolutely um
what else uh what do you do on the threads go on the block it's on a head stud how do you lube up
the threads do you put i do engine oil engine oil in the block yep and airpube on the on the stud
do not go crazy because you'll hydro lock yes just a hole and you'll you can crack the block by just
ramrodding a stud in there with that's full of oil and so that's one thing is like if you've
cleaned the deck of your block a bunch there might be break clean sit in the holes i always
blow out all the holes make sure that there's nothing in there um and then yeah if you use the
impact to put the studs down like a little makita when it does its first click and it's not all the
way down it's hydrolicing if you just let that sit and move on when you come back you can then hit
it again and do one click and you can work it down through the oil and everything you shot a bunch
of oil or whatever that junk was in the hole yeah into your head gas oh yeah it does go up there and
i know you know this but i'm sure they know this but i'm just saying like like the hydraulic
problem can be solved by slowly installing a fastener but it is still a problem would you say
would you say your i don't know if i can say this on podcast where we're trying anyway would you
say your engine performance is piss poor and do you know how you can prevent this poor
some people put like a strong little vacuum and suck out the holes like if you did somehow miss
it you could do that but yeah it's good to have i mean but again this should have happened in your
block prep for the most part when you're chasing all your thread holes but like you're break cleaning
like it's possible so you could be getting stuff there live installed head studs with the airp loop
with no problem i've also seen them on street trucks at a lot of miles and it kind of will set up
and it kind of almost like glued the headsets into the block the block threads i've so i've
done that both ways i've i prefer engine oil as well um we used wd-40 in the past and then
mike finnegan had trouble when he tried to pull that arp 625 out of his ramp truck block years
ago when we upgraded ahead and it was only on there for like a year and i was like man wd-40 is not
the play for at least georgia moisture and an arp 625 that was i think anytime i just i just do a
little little drop of oil on there kind of work through the threads and down she goes
and then i and then yeah obviously arp loop not under between the washer and the head it's dry
or do you put both so what i do is you like to spin in my brain what you said makes the most sense
yeah but um yeah what i will do is i'll put the stud in so oil the bottom of stud throw it in
and then i don't lube the nut or the washer i just throw uh sorry i throw the washer on the head so
it's dry and then i just put a dab on the stud on top of the washer so when the nut goes down it
threads it lubes the stud and the top of the washer so that way yeah you don't get any spinning on
the washer between the head it's just between the stud nut i know some people are very mad at that
and don't think that's the right way if i have like a used set of studs i'll just take the whole bag
of of washers and just like put a bunch of glue in there and just like glue them all up and shake
them up and then that lubes both sides you said glue or lube in the bag lube okay that's a lube
i don't glue and i was like no don't you guys don't put glue in there stop stop stop
that's probably not all that important i don't know i mean i'm with you
it seems logical but if i want if i'm gonna have a friction face i want to be a hard and
not against a hardened washer why would i want to dig into the head
makes sense to me i don't know but you definitely need to lube you need to lube between the washer
and the for sure we do know that and the stud threads yeah so they can do all that stuff
between the washer and the head it seems to work both ways i really haven't had anything
fail because we did or did not put lubrication guys comment below tell us how how do you think
should you lube the underside of an arp i bet that's not an opti torque or a p washer course
the nut or exotic or an alligator or a gosh there's gonna be 17 brands of head start now
oh gator sorry i'm a crocodile heads studs
anyway let's start a headset faster we're gonna call it crocodile studs
yeah and to candy a getter we still love you but as far as like topping components lube the same
i use assembly grease or that stuff in my pins the trunnions in your sorry in your in your rocker
arm there just i don't use oil i use a grease again because on the this is all it's all in
preparation for the startup you know what i'm using oil for or what i'm using grease for
is all in preparation for the startup because pretty quick that's all going to be washed out
the oil so everything you're doing is in preparation for that first startup including
and i grease the tops of the valve stems i touch the rockers i put grease there um anything that's
going to move or rub anywhere i pretty much use grease i think the only thing i use oil for
actually is the cylinder walls if i'm not using quick seat yeah now what about that expensive
comp cams assembly spray that you can spray the valve springs with for break in you ever use that
i've never used that i've never heard of that the gas world it's essentially a red tinted
wd-40 looking stuff that they spray it's like a valve train install spray that they pre-spray
the springs the top of the valves and everything and that's there but they say it like helps with
the break in and they want oil on the outside i do put lube in the bottom the pox spring pockets
are not grease i use oil for that like for the springs right in there just i thought well even
for startup i probably don't want this dry i mean it's probably overkill i do put a little lube
on the spring pockets so i've one piece valve cover and i fill that b through the valve cover
that works too that works too as long as you get there fast enough it gets across the whole entire
head it does all right so you've got this stuff down you've lubed the push rods and everything
assuming the head was assembled right and it has lubed valve stems and whatnot so then
you're going to now you're going to set the valve lash yeah so you got your heads torqued on there
it says the head stud if you're new if you're new your only engine build most likes a little bit
of a hot rod build um then so we're gonna assume you have head studs and uh so on the Cummins the
spec is 10 and 20 10 on your intake 20 you're exhaust and that's warm right engine warm or cold
cold cold lash cold lash so i usually he'll set mine about i actually do set it there or 2000
small like i'll do like 12 and 22 yeah yeah 12 and 22 because i'll start to run it and then i do
my head bolt retort we'll go over that a second and i'll use you lose it lose that 2000 so i'll
be right within spec or close enough that i don't have to redo my lash again so i still check them
all but usually i don't have to adjust but maybe just one or two after that so in your first start
up running your lash the loose doesn't hurt anything a couple thousands is no big deal
but you're doing that anticipating the head crushing more on your future retort and it's
going to tighten up so that you don't have to do the job change the valve lash it'll be close enough
generally and so really you're thinking ahead saving yourself work yeah and that's like a
pro tip you know thinking ahead so i'm actually going to tell you how i do it oh yeah so if i'm
in like a rush where i got a spreadsheet not quite a spreadsheet not it's not warranted for this
if i'm in a rush to where i like like the last race i went to with my truck yeah i did the 12 and
22 thing because i knew that it's going to crush down thou 4 thou whatever and whatever it crushes
to one of my valve lashes at the end of it it's close enough like i can go down the track i don't
have to waste an hour in my life when i could be packing or sleeping or something else if this is
like my tow truck to where i want everything to be 10 and 20 i won't even try i don't even use a
feeler gauge for the lash on first fire i'll just go back like an eighth of a turn on intakes and
quarter of a turn on the exhaust get to where it'll run it won't cause a problem and then after it's
hot retort and crushing everything then i'll spend my time because i do not actually enjoy valve
lash yeah like whatever and so i know i'm going to go in there i'm going to change it and close
enough is not good enough because i don't want to have to listen to a loud valve and think well is
that one a little loose so then once it's already talked everything then i'll set it all perfect
that way i know it's all right where it should be also another thing is before you set your valve
lash um spin that engine over a couple times because there you just put a bunch of grease in
the pockets of the tappets and stuff it's always frustrating to forget to do that set your valve
lash rub it over a couple times and now one of your valve lashes is loose because you didn't
actually squeeze out yeah because there's actually extra clearance because the grease is held stuck
in there and that happens to you that's another reason like i sometimes will smell lash after i
actually run it for a while because i mean you'll set it just perfect and you'll run it all
of a sudden you have an extra lash because it worked that grease out of the pockets of the
tappet and the pushrod so that's a good point now one thing we skipped a little bit we just
want to note you should check your piston of valve clearance yes um generally that's happening
before you set the lash on all of them generally i'm doing that on the first or it depends on what
level of assembly you're at when you when you go to i haven't even fully crushed my head generally
because that way i can pull it back off and not have not burn a gasket but yeah absolutely
you're like can't believe you're sitting here telling us that would burn a gasket if it was
corked down mr iris my gasket i don't check i don't check my own business clearance and check
other peoples but there's a whole gambit i don't even want to get in that discussion on how to
check piston valve clearance there's tons of videos on that but um yeah you should you should
check that um i guess there's a pro tip on that i think you can get away with as tight as 30 on
the intakes oh yeah piston of valve clearance i mean that's a good safe thing which sounds crazy but
the intake valve is any deflection deflection increases that clearance there is theory or
let's just say there's something magical that happens when that intake valve is parked on the
valve when it's that intake valve is parked on the piston when it's opening almost acts like a
syringe and helps so there is performance to be gained in getting that very close interaction
between the intake valve and the piston but um you got to be good at your measurements to get
to get there but i will say pro race engine like pro stock they have negative piston of
valve clearance on the intake valves when the engine's not running because they want that so
close that on a running engine with deflection they don't have contact but they're dang near camped out
when they start the i guess the springs are so radical and they actually crank it over it will
take up that deflection not interfere with that just yeah but they have like a little bit of contact
when they're cold bar in the engine over gosh i built an engine like that one
pro over here super pro tip super pro you'll get there one day but on the exhaust man like if i was
telling a customer so that they don't have a problem i'd say don't go tighter than 80 thousands
piston of all on the exhaust side and piston of valve i've done i've run 60 a lot i i have two
but how good are they at checking yeah but for for guy that can really check really close
i've had contact at 42 and i've had no contact at 45 on some engines and so i would say 50 is
kind of my no go personally unless i'm like well let's just see if this is going to last five runs
we'll run it but but generally you should be a lot more on the exhaust side yeah if you have any
valve float they're going to hit because yeah like you said any kind of deflection on the inflection
makes it better any deflection on exhaust makes it worse and so it's flipping the car flipping the
script on so let's assume you've done all your checks you're there you're ready to go now are we
we moving on to fill in the engine and our first startup techniques yes it's time to go over the
startup so now you it's in the truck most likely i mean there's a couple different ways but we're
going to say it's in the truck fill fill oil i mean some people will put a note on the top of
the engine no oil fill with oil something so you don't start it before you fill with oil because
you build this whole engine you most likely have installed it in your truck you haven't put oil
on it yet so some people put oil on before they put it in their truck somehow some way make sure
there's oil in there and make yourself a note that you don't start cranking without oil it'll
survive for good a little minute because i have all this assembly lube in there so it's it's fine
you don't want it to run and i'm and i'm not actually like when i'm doing oil change i'm not a
believer in filling the oil filter i just put it on and like the pump will fill it like in that
opinion kind of comes from the industrial world where half the oil filters are horizontal so
you can't fill them and so those engineers did not care i don't feel like i should have to care
either um but for first fire i'll fill that oil filter yes first fire is different you want that
oil filter you know you want to give it oil as soon as you can and so yeah so now it's ready to go
if everything's hooked up you're about to do your first cranking and um there's not going to be oil
in your oil passage rifle galley rail things there's no oil anywhere the whole the whole all the
all your plumbing internal plumbing is empty it's got to so your pump has got it even the
even the pump from your oil to the suction side they'll pick up to empty now your oil pump itself
if you are an experienced own engine builder you have put some assembly lube or something
sticky in there to give it extra suction so to speak okay pause the topic on the oil pump that
is another common problem i see where people will torque down the oil pump and not realize
that the face where the bolts are is not the contact face it's contacting in the back so the
bolts are on the outside of that if you tighten up one too much and then tighten down the rest
you'll break the ear off the pump and that's like worst case scenario you also can have bad
oil pressure because you didn't see it correctly and it didn't break but now it's not actually
seated up against the back of the pocket where it's supposed to seal and so my recommendation
is set that pump up square and i'll just like barely snug everything and i'll get up to like
say i'm pretty confident square i'll take it up to like five foot pounds and it'll go and loosen
each one up and retarget to five loosen each one up torque to five and by doing that you're
really guaranteeing that it is actually in their square and then once you you do that they're all
like not moving around not one like because if you torque them all to five and then you check them
and once magically at 18 or 20 or something and you torqued it to five well it's because it was too
short and the others are like leveraging it and trying to stretch it and so once you get all that
then you can take it up to your 18 foot pounds and 22 if you're mire no actually he's a long one so
he's 18 it's all it's all it gets but then you're good to go so what am i doing wrong i know i've
taken some of the 25 nice well i'm just like because you're you're you're on the ears are you
using the 8.8 bolts i'm using factory bolts is not worried about the bolts remember the ears
breaking on the pump yeah that's like working here you see the the warranty department getting a
lot of pumps back and like this could have been prevented yes so 18 foot pounds there so anyway
so usually you'd pre-loop the oil pump even with engine oils better than nothing if it's not dry
it's going to suck i goop it and i goop it and i spin it i get it worked on all the lobes and all
the rotor in there so it's nice and nice and so i'll spin it get it all lubed and then i'll shove
this now in there and like fill that be up because you want it to really have good suction you don't
be pulling air it's like it's got to be you want to suck the little fast and while i'm there i put
a little dub on the idler gear i like to have oil on all the crank gears too which we didn't talk about
it's kind of self-explanatory but yes you want to pre-loop your your gears so that they don't run dry
when they first start yes because there's not oil splashed around for the first couple seconds right
but anyway so now you're doing your first startup so how are you gonna you're you're gonna crank
depending on what engine you run am i crank for a minute if your p-pump guy common rails kind of
start faster so yeah if you're a 12 valve guy that oil pickup tube like they'll prime themselves
fast enough like so you can uh honestly i i have it so where it would start but the lines aren't
bled so it won't and i'll sit there and crank it till i get oil pressure um it should take
15 20 seconds to get i want to back up have a step do you recommend guys have the radiator and the
cooling system the fan everything on there or how installed is this in the truck so i like to do
yes no no radiator no fan no nothing really i really want the no fan because if there is somehow
a leak a fan blows it everywhere and if you don't have a fan on it then that leak is very easy to
tell where it's coming from it's you have more room to get in there and try to fix something if
it's causing a problem it's just something i've started to do get the truck together leave the
front clip off and then um that way um you can get fired up if you have if you have the turbo on
there great if not make sure that oil feed's not just flapping around and then they're done that
it's capped yep or it's looped over or whatever you got to do which i'll put the turbos and stuff on
but it's just it's nice without the fan because it doesn't blow everything everywhere if i'm pulling
the cab i'll generally just put all back together because you don't have the front clip off so now
you just put it all it's all kind of containers like really hoping you did a good job and then
do you have somebody sitting in the truck looking at the oil pressure gauge to make sure makes the
oil pressure you started or what are you doing there for oil pressure so definitely don't trust
the factory gauge on your dash so a third gen is actually really bad about this because apparently
dodge had complaints like oh it takes like three seconds four seconds to get oil pressure like
is my engine blown up no it's the way of the road but common else with the how the big the
pickup tubes are they're even worse and so that the gauge is actually dummy you can have zero oil
in the engine started up it'll show oil pressure and then after five to ten seconds when i think
something's wrong then it'll drop back to zero and ding at you and so yeah don't trust that so we
like to hook up a mechanical gauge usually somewhere by the turbo one of the turbo feed lines
there's a couple different parts on this is actually pretty pretty something that josh actually
josh McCormick teed me into you get an ac pressure gauge it's a little digital one i think it's like
eighty eight dollars on amazon and it's a little it comes with a universal kit with different lines
and stuff so you can hook up to your oil filter no problem but then you connect to it with your
phone and so started you can easily like just have it in the cab with you and make sure you
got oil pressure and so that is nice it's pretty nifty it is nice just a universal
you need some kind of gauge it's not the the dodge supplied gauge or ram you need to actual
there's being real pressure not just we have pressure yeah not even we think we should have
pressure we should have pressure right now so we're going to show you that you do that way you
don't worry yeah and so that's kind of the thing so you start it you get it you're cranking you're
cranking you're cranking and on a 12 valve i would crank until you have oil pressure because it's
very plausible common else the pickup tube everything is so much bigger it takes so long
you'll end up burning up your starter yeah just waiting for oil pressure and so for that
i'm honestly just kind of a fan of make sure you have no pressure gauge on there so you can spot an
issue immediately fire that thing up it'll crank for four five six seconds and then fire up and
then just watch that oil pressure gauge like a hawk if you don't have oil pressure in the first
you know five ten seconds you got a problem you should have pressure in five or ten seconds on
a running engine for sure and then once once it's running so back to 12 valve oil pressure or some
people will say if i have oil to the valve rockers i'm gonna have pressure but they're there
they're close up you got you got fluid in there and they have pressure so
oil to the rockers you got motor you got oil to the whole engine pretty much you don't have
pretty much oil fast but the whole reason you did all this assembly lube is so you could run
that five to ten seconds and you have this lube like it has oil you have oil on the cylinder wall
or the drive lubricant you have grease on your cam all this kind of stuff every your bearings
that's the stuff that's going to make it last until oil actually gets there that's what we do
this all this grease along the whole entire process once you got it and you have oil pressure
now we have what's called a flat type of cam and the most important part of your engine's life is
probably the next five to ten minutes no pressure yes don't screw this one up so you need to have
some kind of brake and oil or a high zinc oil we've broken in many oils on our power driven oil
because we put a lot of zinc in there it doesn't allow to deter detergents and some people say on
a true brake and oil you don't want detergents because it kind of interferes with the lubricants
they kind of fight each other for space we have no issues with that but we on our high
expensive motors we actually do use a dedicated brake and oil i could driven or joe gibbs or
whatever it is i never actually built an expensive motor that needed that you just use a power
driven everything power driven conventional yeah i've never broken anything i've only used power
driven oil on my my ten minutes either broken break i have used breaking and dedicated breaking
engine oil on my engine so i'm the guy so but um so obviously i might it may be overkill but um yeah
so it is designed for there is an advantage used in breaking oil we don't want to undersell that
like it is it is proven that high detergent oil cleanses the zddp off that you're trying to plate
to protect stuff and so it is better to have a low not zero detergent a low detergent
breaking oil is is slightly better so it is it is better but we have done plenty of engines with
great results on our our oil but again it's a very high high 2000 plus zddp yes we and we did that on
purpose so what is what's happening is you're trying to to mate your tappets to your cam
and how that that thing working so you need to be most people will vary rpm up and down
for five to ten minutes you want to get the the tappets spinning on the cam get that whole
motion working um and it'll break the the the cam and the type of a mate and i mean i'm usually
between on my race engines i'm probably between i don't know 15 and 2500 rpm 3000 it's kind of
bumping up and down right there probably that's probably 2500 on my street tracks but it doesn't
really matter i don't think it really matters yeah i like to like that 2000 rpm range is kind of where
i try to call kind of like the realm of where i try to keep it but i don't know why it's important
to vary rpm rather than just keep it at 2000 i think it's some debate on whether that's actually
necessary yeah so in the the gas world because they have tons of flat tappet problems and their
tappets are smaller their their recommendation normally is they put lighter valve springs so if
they have a dual valve spring they take the inner out so it has less load which no diesel guys i
know of do that but we also have way better tappets way bigger way better um that they also run an
extra quart of oil because the cam is splashed lubricated so they artificially increase the oil
they start it as quick as possible all this cranking for oil pressure they never do that
they will prime the oil pump because the distributor does that they don't they would never risk the
cam trying to build oil pressure that way they'd rather much rather the engine starts up immediately
to get oil sloshing around for the cam specifically and this once again this is the gas performance
world not and i'm talking more kind of like muscle car era not roller lifter stuff i'm talking flat
tappet they want it to start immediately with a known good carbon or things to run they immediately
hold it up to 2000 rpm they actually set the idle up there at 2000 let it go 20 minutes oh my gosh
and they don't so they don't vary they just go right up to 2000 the idea there is that 2000
there's way more winnage and the crank is splashing you get more splash lubrication up there
and faster cam speed is more likely to have the tappet spin and so they're not trying to vary
in the comments it's very popular to vary the rpm i've never had trouble holding it at 2000
nor have we had trouble varying it from 1400 to 2000 i've never tried putting extra oil in there
to break in but usually put three gallons which technically is a little bit overfilled depends
if you have a girdle or not but you've really never had cam issues doing doing that but i think
higher rpm does help spin stuff it does help splash lubricate there is not dedicated oiling
for the cam there is oil going to the top end that's coming down but those aren't necessarily
falling exactly right where the lifter is it's kind of adjacent to it there is cam oil being
force fed to the cam journals but not the lobe tappet interface so that is splash lubricated so
i do think rpm is a little bit important there and beyond that a good good lobe good breaking
lobe that we had there good oil you're not going to have any trouble and this is where like if i have
a firing head gasket this is where i get the ready for the hot retorque i'm doing a cam break in no
cooling in it and i generally try to get up to about like 50 150 ish degree oil temperature i
measured at the oil filter and how do you do that so how do i do uh i this is not my racetrack
that has a data logger for all this i use a radar gun like one of those little temp guns
infrared temp gun and just use the filter to stuff a little 30 dollar temp gun and spray the
shoot the oil filter small walkie so it's like 700 or $79 i think they're way just aims around here
they read the same um but on the oil filter sometimes if you have like uh like the white
like fleet guard ones we use it can be hard to get a good reading on it so i'll put a piece of
blue masking tape on it that matte finish helps um get a good reading more predictable reading but
that's like kind of extra but either way get the oil to temp up to like 150 degrees and then bring
it back in the shop shop shut it off and then you have some opinions on hot retorques yes no and
if you let it cool down either way the truck got hot enough it is ready for the hot retorque
when it's easier because the truck is all torn apart mostly yeah it's not fully assembled fan
there's a lot of access you can just pull the valve cover off real quick because
you don't have to have the valve cover to start it but it's going to make a mess shooting oil
everywhere so it's not bad and you get some false confidence and then you do a break in
and you hold it at 2000 and you've completely forgot your valve cover wasn't on and now your hood
here fenders yeah it's not great
so just to recap there's no water in the block you got the oil up to 150 degrees
everything's there we held it you know between 1500 and 2500 rpm we varied the rpm
or you could hold the rpm steady but the steady rpm method on the gas world is 2000 we haven't done
enough on the Cummins to say that it has to be exactly 2000 but I would say that's plenty
fast too make sure stuff's splashing around making sure the tapets are spinning and you've got it up
to temp and there's no water in it so now at this point in time if you're going to do hot retorque
do it hot if you're not if you're your stud manufacturer says do not do it hot you're going to
cool off and do it just a retorque you know whatever I do like a retorque a lot I mean it's
hard to do on like a six liter the V8's are harder but nice to have the online six you can get away
with it a lot easier but um do your retorque and after that now we're to engine break in because
the first cam the cam break is done the hot retorque is done now we have in there our initial
oil is this do you dump it after this or do you guys do your thing and I mean it's the right answer
to you did your break in you ran for 20 minutes get the that oil out of there
and get fresh oil on it that's clean you just click it all the debris throughout the engine
anything you missed all the breaking lubricant like all your grease all that stuff is now in
the oil get that out of there so you have fresh oil in there I am more of an opinion of that motor
that oil needs to make me some money first so I think of every engine I've ever built I've never
replaced there's one engine that did not win me money before I changed the break in a while
and it's because it got second place I would say in general I will do if it's a racer I'll probably
get my first dyno session on my first change well I'll probably warm it up then I'll pull it over
and do a dyno break in on that you'll leave the break in oil in there for the first dyno session
I usually do yeah I'm not saying right or wrong but I haven't had any I haven't had any ill effects
of doing that I can't that I've ever never I don't think I've ever dumped the oil after that first
20 minutes I've at least done dyno or the rest of my break and I don't feel like you've made
enough debris yet it's worth it I'm also don't like the idea of a dry start on something that's
not really fully broken in and I feel like if you open up the oil system to change it
it's going to have a drier start than it would if you left it so I also maybe it's a false fear
but I also don't want to break into that oil system yeah I'd rather so I do dyno stuff let's
say this is not a dyno break and this is a truck I built my garage you know what I'm going to do
to break it I still have the 20 minutes is in now I got I'm ready to go do something what should I do
with my truck and this is okay this is something that's like it's honestly hard for me to get my
head around because like you just spent all these hours building this engine and you did your break
in you you know you're getting it ready and now you're like okay my drive it you want to drive it
easy like just make sure there's no problems that is not the way to break in an engine if you
bought this truck brand new from Cummins and you called them and said hey I want to tow a trailer
with it this weekend like am I cool they'd be like yes perfect Cummins themselves will say beat the
crap out of it and like these things are no different the best engines I've ever like just
crankcase pressure numbers and the engines I just didn't had very little blow by I'm really happy
or the engines that fired up without a hitch did the cam break in really quick and then brought
over the dyno and did you know 600 to a thousand horsepower pulls like long pulls that got some
heat in it and loaded it down the shorty that first engine that miracle thousand horse awesome
engine I didn't we didn't actually have a dyno login at two o'clock in the morning and no one
was awake that was early days where I didn't have my own login so I just beat it on beat on it on the
street and I think I got four point like three miles a gallon that first tank and it was great
it was a great engine now we're going to talk a little bit about the theory why do you need to
load the engine hard to break it in because we've broken in the cam but we have not broken in the
rings in fact if anything we've almost glazed the cylinders during that cam break in because it
hasn't had load we've almost I haven't grazed anything because I'm running a quick seat
the rings are not broken the bearings are not broken why do we need to load this hard
well you want the rings to break in and I guess you know in the gas where they have
gas porting and things of combustion pressure pushes the ring out on the cylinder wall
I guess the keystone ring being as it's designed has an angle would naturally be forced out into
the cylinder wall with combustion pressure and so we want to push that against the wall so we can
mate the piston ring to the wall they're going to grind on each other to that final bit of
machining so we have a really good seal that doesn't happen if you're just putting around
you're going to glaze you're going to wear the coating off your ring if there is one
you're not it's just not going to seal you actually like glazing whatever
it's really best to get those things seated the time to do that is when the machining is fresh
that's what I think yeah I mean if you so you have I mean your cylinder wall has a bit of
abrasion to it and if you just slightly that ring is just going past that abrasion and
it knocks the abrasion off before the ring is actually seated you didn't break it you you can
have oil consumption issues you'll use a bunch of oil because there's you didn't you you didn't
break in the ring you don't have good ring seal if you can I mean that's why you want to go and
you want to beat the crap out of it so that way when that cylinder wall still has its abrasion
you are you are taking those rings and you're shoving it up against it and you're really breaking
like your the profile of the block is now worn into the profile of the ring to where you have a
nice really good seal and that's kind of and that's why like if you have an engine that has 500
miles on it and you're like oh it never broke in it might be too late yeah you can try beating the
ever-loving ever-loving you know piss out of it and you can probably get it better but you'll
probably never get it as good as if you had beat on it immediately I had an engine that I did that
too was in a tow truck and you had some issues in the first start we had a lot of prototype parts
in there and one of them caused some issues we had to I idol it forever trying to figure out what
was going on and um not like an extensive amount of time but probably about you know probably
overall like 30 40 minutes of idle time just before it really got broken you have the cam break
in yeah but that's it well that well I did the diagnostics trying to figure it out and I took
it back out figured it out put it back in then I still had to do the cam break in so you know you
had about 40 minutes of idling and um and then normally I put on the dyno but I didn't install
it here at the shop and so I had to drive it here and I was driving it kind of like more
easy because I was being done I guess um because I was like oh I'll just hook up to a trailer
that engine has not broken in very well and I realized that when the whole side of my truck
like I had oil dripping from the driver handle no passenger side like door handle and I'm like well
it's gonna like and I'd made it to the event already so I was like I'm on my way back now like
it's gonna break in now like if it does if it's going to I'm gonna do it like sixth gear didn't
like egt's were just a number like basically all the chuchat that thing had which is you know
or not all of it but like I think I was I didn't downshift and it just cruise controlled the whole
way so it's probably 700 800 horsepower 1400 degrees and just like letting it eat trying to get to
break in it's a lot better definitely not as good as the the last motor that it had because I took
my time I should have beat the crap out of it immediately but I didn't yeah so it's important
to load those rings and a good way to do that is hook up to a trailer and find a hill honestly
another part of that loading though like the cylinder wall that's going to break in depending
on the home that's there the rings also seat into the piston itself they're on a steel ring and so
that cylinder pressure is beating the ring down it's knocking down the high spots on the ring
or the aluminum's wearing in the second ring so all of that stuff's just kind of wearing and
seating in you know the the sooner the better if it's lightly loaded it's not going to you
could say flex the piston and wear stuff the way it's going to be loaded heavily you're going to
have more blow by the bearings and stuff I don't honestly think the heavy loading is good for them
or bad I just think that they're going to wear in just by movement anyway and so I don't I don't
think there's there although temperature in the oil is is going to make it you know wear in on a
normal condition there but really that's what you're really trying to do is wearing the piston
rings to the piston and and the bores and you're kind of making a new mating surface if it's new
valves you know the rocker you know if it's a 12 valve the rocker arm is kind of wearing in the tip
there if it's a 24 valve you know the bridge is kind of wearing into the sheep foot a little bit
but not so let me pick your brain on this well we're talking about like going and beating the crap
out of it what actually matters like do you want a lot of torque at low rpm do you want just like
5000 rpm like if I had a let's just say I didn't have a dyno and I had a single 480 on my truck
should I consider putting a smaller turbo on it so it's easier to load everything down
and so I'm not like sitting there trying to spool it for 10 seconds before I can finally
make power like what would you care about I think cylinder pressure is what matters and so doesn't
matter where you get it doesn't matter where you get it you're getting some cylinder pressure in there
I will say I think in a weird obscure scenario let's see you have a bearing clearance that's a
little bit tight I think if you immediately get really hot and hot rod it it's going to make heat
before it breaks in and there's more likelihood to spin a bearing or seize a valve stem and so I
think some of that stuff if you have a tight clearance problem it's almost better to have
the brake in broken up over a couple smaller cycles so that the engine has a time to cool down
and the parts can cool down just on that brake in but that's just a weird random scenario where
there's something that's not right right dino hits kind of would be where you're just you get up to
getting up to an rpm you make power for eight seconds you let it cool off shut it down then
do it again I think there's some you could say some benefit potentially there only if there is
a clearance problem somewhere if there isn't there's no clear issue then like and I'm saying
if it's a minimal clearance issue where it could potentially wear itself in and gain the clearance
it needed there's there's advantage to having some cool down between your break in cycles
but if everything is built in clearance properly then I don't think there's any advantage at all
like just just make some cylinder pressure but once again theory not you know and there's
maybe you want comments telling me oh you're wrong will you're an idiot so you could break it
in with the hx 35 or you could break it in with the gt 55 just just one there's gonna be a different
rpms yeah make some power and then yeah enjoy your truck yeah hope you have a long life that
engine it gives you good service good mileage low blow by I like this yeah generally my first
soil change really should be you know between 500 and 1000 miles kind of depends I think a
big power truck it doesn't need a thousand miles to break in so why run never get a thousand why run
that dirt oil and hope that the filter catches it all I'm more of a fan of get that you know
sparkly oil out I'm kind of cheap person so I used to like hang out my oil changes a little bit more
and I've kind of realized that this is dumb you got so much money into an engine like this is a
performance build especially it gets so much money in there protect it with good oil yeah
like I've never had like bearings to be the reason that the engine came out or part or anything
but I've had bearings on engines that I neglected a little bit with oil changes and I'm like
they could have looked better yeah and so if this was a long-term motor I was doing the wrong
play yeah and so I'm more like I want like I used to be like 500 to 1000 now I'm like
let's say 500 miles I'll do um oil change and then I used to like let it go out to six
and I'm like no I want it to be like let's just say four five now you know this is a this is an
expensive motor you spend a lot of time on it you spend a lot of money on it you got good parts
in there it's just so stupid to be oil changes be the reason that it fails prematurely it fails
now there is one more little final aspect of this people ask okay so I've done this I've done my first
oil change what do you do to maintain this high performance truck so let's say a month after your
1500 horse ruby's running what is something that you're keeping an eye on on a fresh build
I'm always watching oil pressure I mean that's always a big deal I'm being smart with my
temperatures but I'm still I'm I'm hot rodding it man I'm still hot running I'm almost saying
valves that's one thing I do and I always check valve lash after I've got a good road trip on it
or something you know everything's broken makes your stuff stop moving um heads you're gonna
check the the torque on the head studs and you're not necessarily breaking them loose right you're
just putting the torque wrench on there and see if they move yes a ruby I use the the 14-limiter
opti-torque studs and and he's pretty strong about not doing hot retorts so I wait to get
cold I'll do retort I'll probably do that two or three times with that next month just verifying
make sure that I'm moving and I've never lost a head guess that way I'm terrible at it I hate
hot retort so I'll always procrastinate to myself why I shouldn't have to do them but I hot these
are I do hot retorques but I don't torque them to the actual value so if it's rated for 155
I'll do it hot but I'll torque them to 125 or 130 or something like that you're 20 30 whatever
foot pounds below just because I feel like when everything's hot it's more malleable I can get
more crush I can get the crush to happen sooner I don't have to do as many of these things to
finally get where they need to go but yeah after you do like the first one or two then all you're
doing is just checking them cold making sure they're not moving and then um obviously you're
checking for oil consumption because that can be a thing yep and so you're gonna you know keep an eye
on your oil level I use my like was it four by two foot like oil inspection card that's my tailgate
there's oil there there you go problem and then one final little thing I think that I see you guys
do a lot is you will cut open an oil filter and take a look in there especially early on so probably
you're probably on your break in oil change yep I usually don't break in because I'm looking for
anything that's like big like you're gonna see sparkles in your first oil change you're gonna
see a little bit and then the next one should be pretty dang clean so I have a different opinion
on that if it's an engine where I'm not gonna do anything about it just go I'm not gonna check I
don't want to know it was it's not the right answer you should check it but sometimes I'm just like
like the shorties engine like if it had a little bit of sparkly in there I'm like I'm gonna run it
till it fails it doesn't matter it's like it's gonna let me down yeah I'm trying to think like
what would I do if I saw excess debris just be sad you'd be sad yeah I would probably pull the
oil pan and see if I can slide a new bearing in and save the crank before I have to completely
rebuild it but I don't know honestly that's the thing though too is that it's generally
after we built like things are evolving so much here if it's been two months since I built that
engine I don't want to pull it back out and try something new like we got new things going on
so in my case like my uncle Rico trucks we're at the racetrack and it develops a pretty nasty
rod knock I have not taken out yet should I check the oil filter or should I not you should check
the oil filter I bet you can fix it just put some Lucas in there the piston slap in the head
definitely let's cut the oil filter now it would be cool to inspect just to see the sparklies but
at the end of the day that's like you know doing a burnout and come back to look at the rubber
marks on the road who would do that there I don't know how everybody looks at the rubber
marks that's why you do them so you look at the rubber marks but I don't know I do like looking
like maybe it's just peace of mind I guess I feel good or satisfaction like oh this is going to be
good yeah like probably more than I would say most my motors I would cut it apart like your tow
truck you don't want to be left stranded because there isn't and you could have known about it
if you'd cut your old filter open I don't want to go to an event and drive all the way there haul it
pay your registration fuel all that stuff and then it just freaking like does a rod knock three
passes in like that just be so I can't even imagine that that'd be that'd be terrible I just thought
of one more oil question I know we're gonna get um synthetic oil can you break it in with synthetic
oil what are your thoughts on that opinions we never do I don't know yeah to me like I don't
have a strong opinion but I also don't fully understand oils as much as everyone else but to
me like a lot of the reason synthetics better is it's better at dealing with the acids in the
oil and so it'll last longer in the same situation but it's a break in oil so it doesn't have to
longevity is not your concern why would you run an expensive oil to dump it out
and I will say I've tested this because when I break in my engine I'm like the weird black sheep
here I take whatever oil we have in here that's open bottle I don't care if it's 2050 it's all
PDD oil but I've put 540 mixed with 2050 1540 conventional synthetic all of it don't care
I just hate all these like mismatch partial bottles of oil so I dump them all in there
because I'm like it's breaking it's not gonna be in there long ATF ain't gonna hurt no one
I mean there may be of some of that but I don't I have not seen ill effects one way or the other
in the longevity of my engines and so it's very conclusive it's very conclusive that that it
doesn't matter synthetic or conventional so that's my axle die on either one is fine if you
want to spend the money on the conventional synthetic great but most break in oil is conventional
because there's thoughts that can make a difference yeah it's not going to be a long service life
be quick so anyway well guys I hope you've enjoyed this two-part series I mean you got anything
else before I sign off here I guess one thing I will think I'll say that I've just kind of thought
about was I always put oil pressure gauge just on top of the filter because it's really easy to see
I have had I heard of an instance where somebody had oil pressure there but not
on the other end of the block so I mean to me that's got to be a blog blog or something yeah
but I've also had it where we use the wrong head gasket this this is the early that oh
gee shorty motor that was amazing it didn't have oil to the rockers because it had the wrong head
gasket in it it was a six seven gasket in a five nine and so the oil got a hole moved in the gasket
it wasn't transferring fluid so I guess one thing I would do is check oil pressure but also make
sure oil is coming out of the rockers as well because that rockers kind of like the last trip
like that's the last place for the oil to go to and so if you have oil there you probably got
oil everywhere when you put your head gasket on your block you should be able to follow the oil
path you can see where comes the block and goes in so you should be able to follow that intelligent
person would be able to do that yes if you didn't know that do make sure double double check to be
fair that was a used head gasket that was in that motor to start with oh and so I was like oh it was
in this motor before it'll be fine now turns out he didn't have oil to this rockers the whole time
oh my gosh this is josh if you built that five nine for uncle rico and then sold uncle rico yeah
and it was ran for like five minutes and so whatever so these are myers budget saving tips
you can reuse firing head gaskets apparently according to meyer I've never blown a used head
gasket I'm just saying I've done a lot of new ones never blown a used one you like to test them
the little horsepower ones let me put those ones in the big horsepower motors yeah just
serve by fast now I was going to the big horsepower I don't I don't like reusing the rings but I've
actually never had issues with that either so you gotta be smart don't just do it you gotta be
smart about it and your crushes and stuff okay when your friends with a machine shop you can
have do whatever you want you can do some stuff yes you got some some pull there but so what looks
like we're out of stock on six seven head gaskets can you set that green gap or that crush a little
bit on the shallow side yes we crush it we're gonna set up these ten thousand crush ones already so
we set it to twelve we should be good nice don't you hear it at first folks it can be done I told
John I was like I was like I was like John I'm he's like I can't believe he reused head gaskets
you got all those parts in that motor and you reuse head gaskets I was like have you ever
blown a used head gasket he's like I've never used I was like that's not the question
that's what I asked you you're like I've never heard of somebody blowing a used head gasket
before I've never heard of it yeah I know they're a hundred percent yep so anyway guys but I do hope
you guys somewhere that there are building engines having fun putting something together having a fun
project and hopefully some of this information is helpful to you of course we love to help you out
give us a call to the shop we have a lot of these parts in stock we have to send them to you help us
out a lot and obviously you know like subscribe give us comments like I said we always try to
look at your comments we get a lot of our ideas for these episodes from you guys so we appreciate
your participation and yeah we'll see you next time on the power jump podcast thanks
About this episode
The conversation digs into the practical side of building a Cummins for serious power, starting with bearing selection, spotless assembly, and how to sanity-check clearances with plastigage. From there it moves through piston protrusion, fire-ring setup, head stud lube, valve lash, and piston-to-valve clearance before finishing with first-fire and break-in advice. The hosts stress oiling, monitoring pressure, loading the engine hard to seat rings, and checking for debris, lash changes, and top-end oil flow after startup.
Part two of the engine building series picks up right where things left off, covering everything from bearing installation all the way through first fire and ring break-in. If you are building a Cummins or planning to, this is the episode you do not skip.
Todd, Will, and Myer break down the full Morley bearing lineup, covering P, H, and V bearings and which one belongs in which build. Coated bearings, bearing installation technique, and why cleanliness between the bearing and saddle matters more than most guys realize all get covered in detail. Plastic gauge gets a thorough breakdown too, including an honest story about what happens when you misread a dial bore gauge.
Wrist pin clip orientation, rod direction by platform, crank galley cleaning, and which way rods go in a 12 valve versus a 24 valve versus a VP44 are all walked through in real shop language. So are crank gear welding, cam retainers, piston protrusion targets, firing head gasket installation, head stud torque sequence, and valve lash strategy.
The break-in section is worth the entire runtime on its own. Proper cam break-in, why you do it without coolant in the block, how to track oil temp with an infrared gun, and why ring break-in requires load are all covered. The crew explains why babying a fresh built diesel causes glazing and oil consumption issues, and breaks down break-in oil, first oil change timing, and cutting open the filter to check for debris.
If you are wrenching in the garage and want to build a Cummins that lasts, subscribe on YouTube and follow the Power Driven Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
Everything the guys talked about in this episode, including Morley bearings, assembly lube, and Power Driven Diesel oil, is available at PowerDriven.com. Links below.
