1989 2.3L
After putting the engine together and torqueing the crank and cam bearing caps per the Haynes manual, the engine is hard to turn over by hand. I used assembly lube all over. I can only rotate the crank a little at a time and only by using a 3/4” wooden dowel leveraged between bolts that I placed in the crank flange. How hard should a rebuilt engine be to turn over when reassembled, before going back in the truck? Should it spin fairly easily?

 

There's a fair amount of friction from the rings in the bore, so it will be hard to turn over by hand.
Normally one checks the crank "free spin" all on it's own _ with no rods bolted to it.
You also need to oil the bore too.

You don't say if you have the pan bolted in place.
Remove the caps (one at a time), clean off the assembly lube and use some plastigage to check the clearances.
Do one at a time, bolting each cap back in place as you check all the clearances.

 

The pan is not bolted in yet. I did not use plastigage because I wouldn’t know how to correct any bad clearance if one was indicated. The rebuild shop owner said it wasnt necessary also but I guess theres a good chance he was wrong. I should have said not hard but impossible to turn over by hand.

 

Plastigage is generally used to check and see how much wear there is on a bearing and crank on disassembly, not so much to check clearances after the fact, in your case it would give you piece of mind.
If it needs correcting, the you have to take it back to the machine shop.
Too much clearance is taken up by using thicker bearing shells and at that point the crank would have been ground.
It's up to the machine shop to make sure the crank was checked for "trueness" and to make sure it was with in spec.
The majority of engines that have not been abused simply need the journals polished and new standard bearings used.

Is this you first engine rebuild, and why did it need rebuilding ?

All the engines that I've done, I've had to use a long breaker bar and socket on the big bolt on the end of the crank to get it to move.
It would almost be impossible to do it with bare hands.

 

Yes first engine for me. The engine siezed up from oil starvation. I found that out when I took it apart, the pick up screen was totally blocked with deteriorated pan gasket pieces. As it turned out only the cam siezed up. The rebuild shop did check the crank and refinished it as needed, I hope! Glad to know the friction must be normal. Thanks for your great info.

 

You should have a sheet from the shop with a listing of all the work they did, including any machining on the crank.
A crank that has been starved from oil will normally show signs of discolouration from heat.
The old bearing shells will be galled.
In severe cases the crank itself will bend and that should have been checked given what happened.

https://www.google.com/search?q=cran...h=752&dpr=1.25

 

They checked everything. Only the cam became seized up because the timing belt teeth were ground off at the crankshaft gear while the crank continued to turn with the camshaft frozen. But even the cam was salvagable and a complete head and valve job was done. What do you think of the oil pick up getting clogged? I read about that happening to other Rangers.

 

I don't think that's a problem, there were a number of different engines, yours is the Pinto engine designed in Germany, it's been around for decades and has proven many times over of it's reliability.
I recommend Felpro gaskets, so if in fact that did cause the oil pump clog problem, Felpro shouldn't do that, or at least I've never heard of that happening.

Since this is your first rebuild, take your time, don't rush things and check your own work as you go along so you're not second guessing your self when it's back together.
The forum is filled with many guys buggering things up because they rushed.

 

Its going on two years now so no I’m not rushing. Another used engine was put in the Ranger for now which I may rebuild once mine is completed. Thanks for the tip on Felpro gaskets. The original Ford oil pan gasket turned into a tar like substance and pieces of it were in the oil pan and also completely covered the pick up screen. The break down occurred near Champaign IL and I had it towed to Joe’s Auto in Champaign. I bought a used engine online and had it shipped there, and I saved my engine to find out why it seized up. Joe from Joe’s auto kept telling me he suspected me of running the engine dry because the oil in it looked brand new. My explanation that I just changed the oil before leaving on my trip seemed too suspicious to him and he didn’t believe me. He kept saying he thought I put new oil in the engine after it seized (who would I be trying to fool?) And, he didn’t do the best job installing the used engine; I had an exhaust leak at the manifold joint, a coolant leak after he said he replaced the intake gasket, and still have an oil leak in back after he said he replaced the rear main seal. He knew the oil leak was there after the job, but said it just needed time for the seal to seat. All that fine service and attitude from Joe’s Auto in Chaimpaign IL.