This is the one I use. Only $36 on Amazon. Helped me diagnose where my coolant was going (unfortunately into cylinder #1).


Rich

 

Saw reference to the oil pump gear getting a bolt trapped against it. Have you tried rotating the oil pump by hand without the belt installed?

 

Harmonic balancer is mounted correctly with all spacers in the correct location, nothing blocking the belt path with all accessories and pulleys spinning freely.
Have used a borescope and inspected each cylinder with no sign of FOD or damage to the top of the pistons.
Haha and yea car in neutral on jack stands. Have tried with the clutch in to eliminate anything further down the drive train being the cause.

 

Next on my list is get Sean or Stan or Greg on a plane. You have exhausted all the magic. Will be interesting to hear the followup cause.

 

Haha yea I haven't been defeated yet , not even close. Will be able to sort it eventually, next step is leak down test .
Interestingly I did a test on all the hydraulic lifters to see if there was any slack between them and the cam lobe and found that I was unable to get a .002" feeler gauge in any of them . So if any valves have been bent it would be by such a small margin.
Will inform when the issue is found and what the finding happens to be . Thanks for your help either way.