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Bored&Stroked · 02-15-2021, 04:51 PM

As Mart noted, did you advance the cam (which my guess is that you didn't), or just change the ignition timing? To me, the rod bearings look like they either didn't have enough oil or the clearances are too tight - or the crank was not ground correctly.

What rod journal clearance do you have? Also, now this is going to sound like a dumb question, but how many oil holes are in the rod journals - 1 or 2? I can't tell which crank is in the engine and I've seen situations where folks put 49-53 rods on a 39-48 crankshaft - starving the rod bearings of oil.

I seriously doubt that the pop-back against the starter was the issue - as all it did was kick-back . . . and I've done that before and bent a starter shaft as a result. If you kept that starter in the car afterwards, then you may just have a bent starter shaft and it was dragging on the flywheel ring gear.

I'd replace the rod bearings, but not before I did some real accurate measurements of the crankshaft rod journals and used a precision bearing mic or dial-bore caliper to determine the rod bearing clearance. There has to be a reason why the bearings are polished like that - and my guess is that it is a clearance issue from the get-go.

02-15-2021, 04:51 PM	#8
Bored&Stroked Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Central Ohio Posts: 5,067	Re: 59 L 276 Stroker Problem during start up As Mart noted, did you advance the cam (which my guess is that you didn't), or just change the ignition timing? To me, the rod bearings look like they either didn't have enough oil or the clearances are too tight - or the crank was not ground correctly. What rod journal clearance do you have? Also, now this is going to sound like a dumb question, but how many oil holes are in the rod journals - 1 or 2? I can't tell which crank is in the engine and I've seen situations where folks put 49-53 rods on a 39-48 crankshaft - starving the rod bearings of oil. I seriously doubt that the pop-back against the starter was the issue - as all it did was kick-back . . . and I've done that before and bent a starter shaft as a result. If you kept that starter in the car afterwards, then you may just have a bent starter shaft and it was dragging on the flywheel ring gear. I'd replace the rod bearings, but not before I did some real accurate measurements of the crankshaft rod journals and used a precision bearing mic or dial-bore caliper to determine the rod bearing clearance. There has to be a reason why the bearings are polished like that - and my guess is that it is a clearance issue from the get-go.