Finally found my problem...warning to all.

DionR said
:oops:

Got the cover off, and low and behold, you were right. How embarrassing.

Snapped a couple of pictures, but haven't gotten them off the camera yet.

In the end, I didn't look at the crank sprocket closely enough. There are 3 keyways cut in it, with 2 of them marked with either -4 or +4. The other key had what I thought was the timing mark over it, when in fact it was a "0". The actual mark is a little tiny tick a couple of teeth away from it. I saw the zero, thought it was the mark and slammed it together. Never had one with the 3 possible keyways, didn't pay enough attention.

Wish I could find some way to blame this on someone or something else. No go, though.

:sad8:

I have built quite a few engines. I hate to admit it, but I did the same thing once. I read the gear wrong when lining up the dots due to some mis-informed advise. It was in a small block chevy but it did the same damage as you have here. I had lots of upper end noise that sounded like the valves were out of adjustment. I had a mechanic I know check it out (he is a very experianced ASE certified tech), he readjusted the valves and said the noise was a caused by the big cam I installed. He felt like an a$$ when one of the valves finally broke at idle and went through a piston! I always double check my work and if I am in doubt about something, I ask for advise from a proven source-not someone that claims they have done it before! Then if I still mess it up, I have nobody to blame but myself.:smile: