CrookedRacer

Tempest, you're probably right if that were the case.

My bearings probably would have stayed there by themselves. These rod ends have been checked for round. And it took a bit of pressure with my fingers to seat them.

I just had the not-so-brilliant idea of putting a bit of grease behind there to ensure they didn't fall off when tapping the piston in. It wasn't out of necessity - I never actually tried it without the lube, except Piston 1 where I added the top side of the bearing AFTER the piston was in. That one went in dry, but it was a pain in the *** because of my not-so-tiny hands.

Then I had my bright idea, and the rest of the bearings went onto the rods before tapping them in.

CrookedRacer

I called Michael Mount and asked him about it.

When I got to the part about smearing some on the backside, he said, "Noooooo!"

It's not so much the slipperiness of having the stuff there... it's the space it takes up. Michael set up the oil clearances within tolerances of one or two thousandths and any stuff on the back side will change those clearances. Not all of it gets squeezed out.

So I'll be going back in there and cleaning it up. With 8 new con-rod nuts. So lesson learned, no harm done.

Thanks everyone for bringing it to my attention and learnin' me.

Noahs944

Hell brother, it ain't no big thang.
The important parts are you caught it in time, checked in with the man himself and we all learned something. I'd say that's a job well done!