Is my 5.7 too tight?

[redwing4900]

Hello everybody I’m sorry for the provocative title for this one but its truly my question.
I purchased my 1998 Yukon in the fall and because of the cold weather only just finished a full motor rebuild complete with machine shop rebore (.040 over) and reconditioned vortec heads. the PO mentioned that he had the transmission rebuilt then the head gasket blew and left it sitting in his driveway for three years until I bought it. Today I finished the final assembly and put all accessories and brackets on but was extremely disappointed when the starter would only click when I turned the key. It’s the exact noise the starter made when I first bought this thing with a seized motor.
I removed the spark plugs thinking the lower compression would at least get the motor to spin, but no.
So should I measure the torque value of how much force is needed to turn the motor? Would that help to paint the picture better? I know that idea sounds whacky but since I measured all crank specs when assembling and believe that I’m within them—now I’m wondering what else i can do.
Another issue that happened was when I poured anti freeze into the thermostat housing before installing the new one and checked for leaks none...at first. While installing the distributor and plug wires I hear some antifreeze gushing from the middle of the engine where it meets with the transmission. This is my first engine build in case you couldn’t already tell.
There was also antifreeze where the EGR pipes come out of the intake...I know that could be disastrous but there isn’t any in the oil or when I pulled the plugs I didn’t see any there. Is it possible the way I poured in the anti freeze that it got into an open exhaust valve and that’s why it was in the EGR passage?
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated I plan on working on it all day tomorrow, but at this point don’t know where to start.
I also noticed that when I put the transmission in neutral I don’t get the clicking like it’s not able to start in neutral...maybe transmission issue too? Big problems

 

[drakon543]

im going to throw this out there only because of 2 things. you keep mentioning the starter only clicks and nothing else relating. lastly sounds like you spent alot of time on this and something simple could just be getting overlooked. ok first you finished the engine rebuild did you by chance give the oil pump shaft some rotations? on a fresh rebuild im told its fairly common to get oil pumped through the engine before you try to start it. the actual thought here tho is are you sure the starter isnt just bad? or possibly a bad ground or cable. have you tried to manually rotate this engine. my other thought here since ive had a brain fart and done it myself. the flywheel can be installed backwards and it will cause excessive pressure and act like a seized engine.

 

[redwing4900]

I actually did prime the oil system I should have mentioned that. About the flex plate/flywheel what should the orientation look like?
I went by the bolt wear marks not to say I could have done it wrong.
When I mentioned the starter is clicking I mean it sounds like it’s trying to turn but stopping not like a clicking noise and nothing else.
Do you think a pic of the flywheel through the access of the transmission would help to rule out putting it in backwards? Of course it would I’ll post that when I can.
Thanks

 

[mikeyss]

One thing I can think of, years ago when I was young and built my first 350, I mistakenly installed my crank main bearing caps in the wrong locations. It wouldn't crank over, and I burned up 2 starters before I pulled the oil pan and realized what I did. It acted like it was locked up, and I could barely turn the engine over by hand. Once I had the main caps in the proper places, it spun right over.

 

[drakon543]

I actually did prime the oil system I should have mentioned that. About the flex plate/flywheel what should the orientation look like?
I went by the bolt wear marks not to say I could have done it wrong.
When I mentioned the starter is clicking I mean it sounds like it’s trying to turn but stopping not like a clicking noise and nothing else.
Do you think a pic of the flywheel through the access of the transmission would help to rule out putting it in backwards? Of course it would I’ll post that when I can.
Thanks

ya that's about what it i tried to do but everything was going so smoothly and the beers were too. lol jokes aside i thought i had that one right too. not sure if i absentmindedly spun it around in my hands while my buddy was talking or what.

 

[Woodblocker55]

I have old 1999 Tahoe when starter went out . Depending at what spot it stopped at it do the same thing just click . You need look in to that starter and manuelly turn engine over .. that's just my guess . And any time anything sits for whiles strange issues popup like screwy acting starters. And I had a altinator lockup would not spin . Took belt off and kept turning back and forth and finally broke loose then it was fine . Minnesota humidity screws with everything.

Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk

 

[redwing4900]

Checked all fuses this morning all good. Here’s a pic of the inspection window from the transmission...I can’t remember if the flex plate was in this position...is it backwards?

 

[redwing4900]

Looking at the starter it doesn't fit perfectly i do have the gear reduction starter which is preferred but maybe it needs to be shimmed? This could be my issue. Did anyone else have to shim when they put in their gear reduction starter?

 

[drakon543]

the yellow arrow pointing to those teeth is the flywheel i mentioned and i cant see it. also yes supposedly sometimes swapping to the gear reduction starter requires shimming. it will either be so tight it can cause your problem or chew up the flywheel. just remove your starter and try to rotate the engine by hand. off the crank pulley is best but if your careful you can use the flywheel too.

 

[redwing4900]

So what do you think flywheel backward? I honestly can't remember how it looked when i started. While i was looking at it today i remember that the torque converter has an indent that would only allow for the flywheel the way i had it installed. I remember thinking that i was lucky i had put it that way is there a sure fire way to know?
As for the starter i was considering to put the original oem starter in it's a little bigger and it would fit in there like it should. Thank you all for your help. As i look at the long road ahead I'm thinking the transmission will have to come out possibly as i noticed one plug not connected i can't tell where it should go yet and the plug near the shifter had almost all of the wires pretty trashed and one pulled out. I wish you all a tall whiskey on the rocks.(!)