Hey I once had a /6 that the crank wouldn't turn at all until all caps were torqued properly--and no it wasn't on a stand it was flat on a bench. Block distortion is the only thing I can come up with. J.Rob
I’ve seen a number of various stock type builds, running factory type clearances....... where the cranks either didn’t turn, or didn’t turn easily...... until the caps were properly torqued.
I’ve honed some SBC blocks from circle track motors built by other shops that were here for freshening.
We do them with the main caps installed and torqued.
You could easily tell when you were doing one that was finished honed without the caps on it originally.
There would be lots of fluctuations in the load meter when you got near the bottom of the bores.