you may be ok with the clearance, but the fact you had to tap on the piston  or the rod bolt distorts the plastigauge, so for the benifit of others  i would sugest the clearance doing  it that way is in no way acurate.  Aexample is if 1 is checking main clearanc in the car you have to put some cardboard under at least 1 bearing and snug the bolts so crank is pushed up. then plastigauge the others.plastigauge is not extremly acurate especialey if the procedure is not folowed.

I am ok with the plastigage reading. Same as it was the last time I re did the engine. Next step is to confirm the piston to valve clearance with modeling clay. Been there, done that before. Cam and heads are different so got to check it. Pistons are flat top.

with having to beat on the piston or rod bolts to separate the cap, you have distorted the plastigage and do not have a correct clearance read.. so you wasted your time checking clearance..you could use a dial indicater but would be a pain .the butey of correct bolts and machine shop assembley  is the caps will come apart with a light tap on the side of the cap. But the dial gauge will give you indication of clearance. with short block assembled tap each piston with it at lowest position asem. the indicator then tap the botem of the piston with apiece of hard wood.need to be jentel as jaring the gauge distorts the reading.  if rods move side to side after caps tightend to torque you have some clearance as well the rod is strait

Just curious-what style pistons and how much valve lift are you using?Wondering about Pto V clearance.

Got a bigger hammer and a brass drift and finally got them to come off. I was kidding about the bigger hammer but it just took a little more force than I thought it should. Got two more to install and need to install timing chain and bolt on heads to check valve to piston clearance. Rod bearing clearance is .001 to .0015 which is at the high end of factory spec's and where I had it set when I first built this block in 1968. Thanks for the good input as always. I will probably have more questions before I am done.

Yes!  Crank throw positioned so that piston is at bottom of cylinder bore, rod parallel with cylinder bore...  GooD recommendation, steinauge!   


NoShortcuts
a.k.a. Charlie Brown
near Syracuse, New York

I usually use a piece of broom stick long enough to reach the wristpin boss.Tap on that with your hammer and the cap will come off.Be careful that once the cap starts moving you pick it off with your fingers and put protective sleeves on the rod bolts.

Bolts are ARP bought new from John Mummert. If I can't figure it out tomorrow I will talk to the machine shop and then to John. The machine shop installed the bolts and did resize the rods.

take them back to the machine shop. had a simler problem ,machine shop could not find a lost set of bolts and substetuted . went to a different shop they claimed that 460 ford bolts wher a better fit ,but had to trim them. to much thread after nut inst.the incorrect bolts made the bearing clearance to tight. you may have to have the rods resized after corect bolts inst.. i would use 2nd hand correct bolts rather than what you have.the rob bolts used at ford ar over built so would not worey about reusability. just my take

So they are bolts, not studs.?
And have you put the cap on the right way, tang to tang etc.

However, by squeezing the bolt heads together, wiggle the cap by the bolts forward and backward, length ways of the crank.
This should free the binding.