Ideas on what's causing my click/tick/rattle noise?

RustyRatRod said

Well, I don't know man. SOMETHING happened.

I've often thought it sucked that the slant 6 is so difficult to prime. It has to run basically dry until the pump fills the filter and the engine finally gets oil.

BUT I thought of a way you can actually do it. It's a pain. With the camshaft in the engine and the oil pump in and filter on, you can spin the camshaft with an air ratchet and prime the engine. You don't want to use an impact of course. lol

I just slob lots of engine assembly grease on so the engine doesn't have a chance of being to dry and have at it. I've done the camshaft spin thing once and it does work though.

Click to expand...

Agreed, something happened but danged if I can figure it out. Maybe it was just a spell of bad luck. My plan is to put this back together as carefully as possible and see what happens. I did check all the oil passages when I gave the block a bath, and all are good. I have slobbered plenty of assembly lube as I go. I plan to leave the plugs out of it when I start the break-in, and spin the engine to get the oil pump working and the galleys filled. I will fill the pump with vaseline to prime it.

I'm putting in new rings to make sure there's no issue with the oil/rich mixture/carbon business and I may swap out the umbrella valve seals for a set of the positive ones. I shall report on things moving forward.