I got the engine for my motor swap the other day and am taking it apart and looking at it. To start off with, it is a 350 out of a 69 camaro. I am having an issue with the number 6 rod cap/bearing. I can't tighten it over 30 ft lbs without locking the motor. If I loosen it at all, it will turn over no problem. I looked at the bearings and they say std. I went and got another set of bearings and threw them in and it didn't help one bit. I don't see any flaws in the rod or rod cap, but I haven't measured anything yet. I will probably just ending up buying a new crank to see if that fixes it.
If anyone has any ideas, let me know.

 

Measure, Measure, and MEASURE again!! You'll need an internal and external micrometer to measure the crank and the rod. Have you tried tightening it down onto another journal that you know is free once torqued down?

 

^^^^^ And use plastiguage

 

I decided to take the rod cap off and exchange it for one that I knew was good. I just switched no. 5 and 6 rod caps. They are labeled so they were in the right order. After I switched them, i tightened both to 20 ft lbs and it turned over freely. I then retightened them to 35 and it still spun freely. I went back through and made sure they were all tightened to 45 ft lbs and tried it again. It spun freely. I'm not sure if when they put the engine back together if they mixed up the number 5 and 6 rods. I don't have any plastigage left, so I am going to pick some up at work tomorrow and check them out.