[Cliff R]

"Nobody has proven to me that I should rebuild the bottom end because of a noise that eludes me."

Forgive me if I didn't read all the responses, but at this point in my life I don't have an hour and a half to give up. If someone else actually installed pistons backwards in an engine build, by accident or on purpose, then did a 100,000 mile test I missed it.

So far as I know I'm the only one that actually installed 8 pistons in the WRONG direction and ran the engine like that. It was NOT good. Made "odd" noises, used a bit too much oil for my liking, and you could just tell something wasn't right with it. I left it that way for 10,000 miles and it just got worse. The rings never "set" as good as they should or the pistons slapping around some in th e bores didn't allow them to seal up well, doesn't matter. I pulled the engine and moved them to the correct locations with the "F" on the front of the pistons facing forward. That immediately fixed ALL the issues including some oil consumption and the engine went on to be flawless for another 90,000 miles.

A lesson early in my learning curve I made sure NOT TO REPEAT........FWIW.......