Eh - I'm pretty stubborn and patient so I'll get through this. It's a mopar thing right?

Have you done a electrolysis check on your motor? Take a voltmeter and ground the black/neg. and dangle the red/pos. in the coolant with an open radiator cap. Should be less than .3 volts (300 mV).

Are you mixing tap water with green coolant?

Machine shop got the crank straightened out, it's under .001" now. Made a little progress last night. Looks like I need to shorten and move the oil pump pickup to the centerline of the crankshaft to meet up with the oil pickup area on the pan. I think that it should end up just over #3 main cap, so couple inches forward and about an inch towards the crank centerline. Probably will leave that until the weekend and continue assembling on the shortblock.

Hey Eric, what are those marks on the crank counterweight and the main caps? It might be my aging eyes, but it looks like there are some marks or something there.
Looks very clean, the bare aluminum. That is going to be really great!

It's the arp assembly lube for the fasteners. If you glance at it really quick, it looks like there are big gouges in everything. I'll get the extra lube stuff off of there before I button the pan up. Fun task of filing rings will start tomorrow.

Going ok....hope to get more done tonight

It does look like gouges in the metal!
Glad that it isn't!

Got the oil pump, timing cover and balancer on. Good thing I have a microwave/convection oven in the garage, had to heat up the balancer hub to get it on the crank since the balancer bolt thread is so deep on these motors, my regular damper installer tool wasn't going to work. Also the FedEx guy showed up just in time so I could install the 3/8 NPT x -10 fittings for the oiling ports in the block. Looks like one of the fittings might be very close to the guard on the back of the alternator once the hose is attached to it, will need to investigate that further. I got all the pistons miked and the shortest rods paired up with the tallest pistons, smallest pistons in the smallest bores, etc. It's going pretty smooth now. Just not fast enough!

Looks great!!

Yes- the oil fittings and the alternator are close (touching, actually). My upper 90* -10 end presses up against the alternator cover (the hose end of the 90, not the -10 AN end), and I have to lever the alternator in place. I have that hose going between the alternator and head, so it is angled slightly forward, and that's what causes the most interference.

I have a car alternator. Not sure if the jeep alternator has the same back cover depth.

Forgot how long it takes to file fit rings, 3 holes down 5 to go. I'll have to spend some more time on the alternator to oil line clearance after I get the long block together.

I had to grind down one of the hex's to get mine to fit

Getting it done! And I bet it will be a better motor than ever now.

I hope it will be better than ever - making progress. I think I will be able to drop it in over the weekend. Also got the oil line fitting issue sorted out. Still lots of stuff to do, but things are looking up

All that aluminum looks great.

Got the AC compressor mounted up, cut the compressor, cut the k member, dent the header, grind the motor mount - piece of cake right?

If it were easy, JC Whitney would have a $19.95 swap kit to do it.
Guys with determination and skill are a MUST for this sort of thing.

there isn't a whole lot of clearance after doing all this stuff, I hope it will be ok....

I found that the alternator actually hits the AN fiiting I used as oil ports
I had to cut out a portion of the plastic on the back of the altermator to make things all fit

I think that whoever mentioned cutting the motor mounts off the k member was onto something, what a pain the ... might as well start from scratch.

also including funny picture of me taking a break watching the indy 500

Looks like the Indy car is about to meet the wall.