I have a 1995 C1500 with a 4.3 V6 that spun a rod bearing on #5. I tore the engine down, had the block inspected and cleaned and have started putting it back together and am now at the point of installing piston and rod assemblies. I'm aiming for a simple bottom end rebuild so I am re-using the pistons as they are still in good shape.
The rod on #5 was no good, so I bought a reman unit to swap over, but I can't seem to get the wrist pin out of the old rod for the life of me. I understand this is best left to a machine shop, however I'm trying to save where I can, but the bigger problem is that I already have the crank and cam in with assembly lube so I'm on the clock to finish assembly and get it started while the lube is still able to do it's job on initial startup. My local machine shop does good work, but they are not very fast and would take a few days or better to make the swap themselves.
I tried using a propane torch (the same kind you can screw the small MAP cans to) to heat the rod end around the wrist pin for a few minutes before trying to tap the pin out, but it isn't moving. Those that talk about doing it at home this way say to heat the rod end up long enough to get hot, but stop before it gets red hot which I did.
Have you guys experienced this before? What would you do differently?
The rod on #5 was no good, so I bought a reman unit to swap over, but I can't seem to get the wrist pin out of the old rod for the life of me. I understand this is best left to a machine shop, however I'm trying to save where I can, but the bigger problem is that I already have the crank and cam in with assembly lube so I'm on the clock to finish assembly and get it started while the lube is still able to do it's job on initial startup. My local machine shop does good work, but they are not very fast and would take a few days or better to make the swap themselves.
I tried using a propane torch (the same kind you can screw the small MAP cans to) to heat the rod end around the wrist pin for a few minutes before trying to tap the pin out, but it isn't moving. Those that talk about doing it at home this way say to heat the rod end up long enough to get hot, but stop before it gets red hot which I did.
Have you guys experienced this before? What would you do differently?