My line of reasoning:
I timed the motor, putting moly assembly lube in each of the caps and on the rollers of the RFFs. I put a wrench on the crank to turn it a few times before putting the rest of the engine together (I always want to make sure timing comes back around properly, and to ensure there's no binding or stoppage). Well, I couldn't turn the thing AT ALL with my 1/2" rachet. Something was seriously no bueno.
No biggie, I thought- I must have put cap or two on backwards, swapped, etc.
Started with B1 Exhaust cam. Removed the RFFs, chain, ensured the stamped numbers lined up all in the same direction and were in the correct order, and tightened the cam caps back down. Could barely turn the cam with my hand, but it would turn.
Then I thought that the head cap was swapped (even though they were already installed when the heads arrived, and I didn't change their order). I swapped with the B1 Intake cam, and tightened just it down. Couldn't turn the cam at all, even with a wrench. Definitely not it.
Went on to the B1 Intake cam, then B2 Exhaust, then B2 Intake. All in turn were barely turnable by hand with the cam caps torqued down to spec (82in/lbs), the combined sum of which made for a completely unturnable motor. No one cam was the culprit. There were no burs or other damage to the cam journals, or to the cams themselves.
Since they were all somewhat turnable, that tells me the caps were in the right order. However, with the SVT cams from LilCe's 98.5 SVT motor on the 3L, it wasn't the slightest bit happy.
'05 Taurus 3L. Difference (albeit minute) in cam journal diameters?
