[HWYSTR455]

Originally Posted by 72LuxuryLeMansLa.

He couldn't sleep tonight without finding out! I know that feeling.

Basically! Yeah, it was an illusion, just poor lighting is all. It was the counterrweight, the angle and the poor light together caused the illusion.

Carry on...

.

[Va68goat]

TedRamAirII,
From what the tech said, he noticed slight "uneven wear" on the new distributor gear. The new distributor bushing and gear have less than 2 hours of idle time. When Paul recently discovered the bad distributor bushing, he said he tore the engine apart. I'm imagine that he checked the cam gear.

Sirrotica,
As grivera says..It's a 455 block with a factory 455 crank.

Here are the pictures of the oil pump shaft again along with the videos of Paul explaining the damaged distributor bushing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmwzlUPfaw4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRO0vuHfuYg

[torqhead]

Wonder if you could do this same test again that you showed in this video, but take a long screwdriver or something that allows you to push the oil pump driveshaft towards the front of the motor and see if it rubs on the counterweight as the motor is being turned over.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDZKHIOGWcE

If this turns out to be the problem it may be the 2nd time this may have been seen as mgarblik noted he had something similar occur!

[Va68goat]

dataway,
I hope it's something simple but at this point it looks like something simple inside the engine. I think there are a few more things that the tech has to diagnose.

[gtospieg]

If you look at your second pic in your latest post you will see that the front seal(for the harmonic balancer) is not fully seated(it is crooked and probably not creating a good seal)...this could be the source of your leak.

[grivera]

Originally Posted by gtospieg

If you look at your second pic in your latest post you will see that the front seal(for the harmonic balancer) is not fully seated(it is crooked and probably not creating a good seal)...this could be the source of your leak.

Not sure about the seal on Joe's engine but the one I installed on my #'s matching engine looks the same as it bottomed out in the timing cover before the edge reached the surface. Mine is a reproduction timing cover so not sure if the dimensions are off or the seal is too "deep." It did not affect the seal's performance.

[chiphead]

Ditto on the front seal. Usually it bottoms before the lip perfectly hits the timing cover. Never had a problem with a major leak there. It's common to have some oil residue or a slow drip, because the timing chain throws a lot of oil against the pan lip and the front seal. The galley plug mod (if done) adds oil being thrown off the chain as it runs.

Not exactly on topic, but: Is the Romac that good of a balancer? Why not use a SFI-rated balancer that doesn't require so many modifications?

[Va68goat]

Holeshot71,
Anything but the exhaust theory again! Hahaha

Cardo,
Yeah...That was pretty good. I was surprised that he held the rhythm that well for that long. He had it almost sounding like my engine...Hahaha.

[Va68goat]

Formulas,
We did run the engine with a stock balancer and the knocking noise was still present. I don't think we are going to run this engine without a balancer though.

I spoke to Paul last night and I think we are back on track. Frustration may have gotten the best of both of us but I think we are headed in the right direction now. I'm hopeful this will get resolved soon.

[Va68goat]

ponjohn,
Yeah..we've had the pan off a couple of times over the last 2 years. Right now the engine is in the car but I don't think it will be for long. I'm still waiting to hear from Jeff but if I don't hear anything soon, the motor will be out within a week.

[Va68goat]

Addtional photos