Major milestone: crank is in, turns like butter with the new bearings. I set the thrust bearing according to the instructions (lean on the crank forward with a screwdriver, lean on the crank cap backwards, tighten). At this point I thought there might be enough distortion to sieze the camshaft up but it's actually even better now with the crank caps torqued down. It's damn smooth as it should be I suppose Next step is fit the timing gear so I hope the instructions and markings are clear on that. Still waiting for the refurb cylinder heads. Machine shop is also fitting some new pistons to the cleaned up rods. Still got a couple of hurdles here but the big question (is it going to turn over) is halfway answered: it damn well should. I'm starting to hate it just a little bit less.