One way to isolate a rod knock is to remove the plug wire while it is
running. If the knock changes then it is probably a rod. Rockers are not
affected by the power from the piston. You're right, rod ends are machined
on the rod. They are torqued to specs and then the opening is machined.
They can easily be different if placed on another rod. You may have had an
oversized bearing in the wrong packaging or something stuck behind the
bearing.

"Patrick Johnson" wrote in message
ink.net...
Hi,
I just finished re-building the 4.3 Volvo engine in my 1998 Larson SEi
176. Stupid me didn't get around to winterizing the engine and I paid the
consequences. Fortunately I have re-built plenty of automotive engines
and
had the resources to tackle this job. The original engine only had about
10
hours on it and there was still cross-hatch in the cylinder walls! The
crack occured near the top of the block, right above the 'passenger' side
row of lifters. I found a slightly used block that had the same casting
number and used all of my original parts to put the motor back together.
Everything went back together just fine except for the number one piston
rod
cap. Everytime I would tighten it down to the torque spec, the rotating
assembly wouldn't turn. I replaced the rod bearing, but that didn't help.
Finally I tried swapping the rod cap with the adjacent piston's rod cap
and
everything worked fine. This is probably a big "no-no", but everything
moved freely after I tightened all the nuts to the torque spec.
Anyway, I now have the engine back in the boat and cranked it up for
the
first time. It cranked up right away (after priming the carb.) and had
good
oil pressure. I was able to set the timing to 0 which is what Volvo
specifies and the engine now runs and sounds like normal. However, there
is
an intermittent knocking sound coming from the engine. It sounds like
someone is tapping on the block with a small hammer. Could this be the
rod
cap issue coming back to haunt me? The more the engine runs, the less
frequent the knock occurs. Could this be lifters? The engine has run for
about 5 minutes total now.
I have the Volvo PJX jet pump as the drive unit on my boat. For those
that are familiar with this unit, there is a water supply that enters the
transom at the top right corner of the drive unit (if looking at the rear
of
the boat from inside the engine well) through a T-fitting. There is a
large
hose connected to one of the 'T's' of this fitting that runs to the
thermostat housing on top of the intake. From the factory there is no way
of connecting a garden hose to this water supply to run the boat out of
the
water. Fortunately, there was a pipe cap on the other 'T' of the fitting.
I was able to install a garden hose fitting at this point and can now get
water into this supply hose. I ran the engine with this set up and I
noticed that water was running out of the thru-transom exhast pipes. I
figure this is normal since there doesn't appear to be any other way for
the
water to exit the engine. However, there seemed to be a lot of steam
leaving the pipes. I remember there was always a little bit of steam
right
when I would begin accelerating, but never this much, especially at idle.
Is this because I have the water connected this way? Could there be a
leak
between the 'riser' and the exhaust manifold? Also, I noticed the
temperatue never really warmed up. Do I need to pour water into the
engine
due to the thermostat being closed and not allowing water to pump into the
dry block? Is there even a thermostat? Does the impeller need to be
spinning for the water to circulate properly? I figure the water supply
is
some sort of bleed pressure from the impeller.

Other than this, everything seems fine.

Thanks!!!
Patrick
(paranoid boat owner)