Thanks John. No I have not done the distributor sync thing. Do you mean pull the coil wire on one and then restart the car? then repeat with other distributor?

As for the wire order. I did NOT remove the wires from the caps. And I have checked the routing/order of the wires at least 4 or 5 times to rule this out. The wires are relatively new, under 1K, and worked fine prior to rebuild.

Here are some pix from during the rebuild. The cams are correct for left right. The Cam pic is of the LEFT side. Notice the 247. Correct for left side. Allso followed the "L" and Rabbit Ears rules to be sure. Second pic is of right side FWIW. I'm off to get stethoscope....

I'm not reading all this, but cold weather and a rebuild... You sure it isn't lifters? What weight oil? (Thick oil + cold weather) x rebuild = lifter that will take a long time to come up.
Is the sound comming from the bottom left?

Hi Calvin,

Read through the thread - there are a series of problems being identified, like oil pressures, the noise, heat, etc. Lifter have been discussed and are not off the table as a source - the question is there an issue around pressurization that is greater than the lifters itself, and possible related to low oil pressure.

Peter is going to try to isolate the location of the sound which will give us a better clue as to valve train or chains.

He has run it a few times to full operating temperature, it may still be possible that the lifters are not pressurizing just due to being stubborn, but its not clear.

He is also in California, but not sure where to see how much temperature is impacting this. I am sure he will respond.

Cheers,

Mike

Location: Bay area. Temps 45 - 58F, currently 49F. Not exactly balmy but not cold either. I suppose I could be in the Blizzard Nemo. The oil in the car is Brad Penn 20w-50. All input is welcome. Thanks.

Have stethoscope. Will report back soon.

The Doctor.

All I can tell you is that I am here for moral support. I have been in this situation with everything from cars to computers to HVAC.

Hoping it turns out well for you.

Peter, I would be surprised if it didn't make all that racket considering the conditions.
20-50 oil
50 degrees OAT
Lifters being out of service for an extended period.

It's going to take more then idling the car to operating temp.
Drive it, for 20 minutes with the Baby gloves off.

I just experienced this same condition with a friends car here in AZ last weekend. The 20-50 was literally pouring like syrup on a cold to "us" day. Lifters would not pump up on the oil top off procedure at operating temp. His motor was out for about a month. I believe the lifters have a hard time accepting 20-50 but they will with a good drive.

As far as break in, we used to redline RSR motors on the dyno the moment they hit operating temp. The way these motors are built and coated it isn't an issue.

Thank You. That actually means quite a lot to me. This has been a bit of an emotional rollercoster ride. One spends months and quite a bit of cash doing this and when it is all ready to go you get thrown for a loop.

I honestly could not have done anything to my car without the support of all the truly wonderful people here. This is truly a great place.

Having said all that I am remaining positive and trying to be objective. Step by step, even if I have to rebuild it all over again I will get it done. I will get the best of this machine.

Peter,

You def do not have the cams backwards because that would be apparent when you go to add the PS gear back on right side 4-6 bank. I would not run this until you have checked it a bit further. It would be really depressing to damage it when your so close to getting it right.

Have you tried driving the car just down the block? I know it's a big risk, but it may tell you something???

I'd imagine if it's mis-timing, there would be no power or it woudn't run right.

Or if the lifters didn't pump up, it would be noisy but otherwise work fine.

Comment???

Mid-day Update - The Drama Continues:

So, here I am, ready to go with stethoscope in one hand and compression tester in the other. I decide to do compression first. Hose goes in to Cyl. 2. Fuel pump relay removed. Coil wires disengaged. I turn the car over and read the dial. 95 PSI.
This seems off so I check to make sure I have the hose fully threaded in. I turn it clockwise. It spins. Aha, it is not tight. So I turn it counter-clockwise and guess what? It continues to spin. I realize now the connector is threaded into the spark plug hole and I can't get it out! The hose has lost its grip on the connector. :banghead:

Fast forward two hours. I have removed the rocker panel and finally figured out that to get the connector off I need to remove the hose in order to get a socket on it. My sockets are all metric. This thing is SAE, nothing fits on it. I get out a very long pair of pliers. It wont budge. Next, I get out a 3mm t-handle allen tool and it fits perfectly in the tiny center air hole. A quick twist and it is out!:jumper:

Moral of the story? Good tools cost more but they are worth it. I rented the compression tester from Autozone. It was free with deposit. Nothing is free.:crying:

Thankfully, I have a good quality hose from my leakdown kit and I can use that. Shoulda done that first. The silver lining was I was able to take pix of the cam tower. See next post....

Hopefully, it will be as simple as this.

Yes, A good idea. I have not tried driving it as I was following the break in procedure in Wayne's rebuild book which called for 20 minutes 2000 RPM, oil change and THEN drive it. I don't want to ruin it so I will go cautiously from here and do whatever tests I can before going on a ride. More facts, objective data, etc.. and I will be more comfortable with risking it then. Thanks.

Ok, here are the pics with the rocker panel off. While here I will remove the rockers and inspect the lifters (I will post pictures). I will not be able to get to that until tomorrow as I have social functions tonight which will be a nice break. Anyway, here are the pix from lower 4-5-6 (exhaust):

A few more. Everything looks OK, Yes?