Thanks Gene for taking the time to provide all this feedback. It's greatly appreciated. I did check the position of the oil pump gear shaft before I pulled it and put the new hardened one in the same position, I also marked the position of the distributor and cap. It's possible they move but Ai was extremely careful the not have that happen.

I feel I used good quality parts when I had the motor built by a professional back in 1993. New stock forged crank, new LY rods, forged TRW 40 over pistons, original max wedge adjustable rockers, deep sump morose oil pan, Cloyes double roller, etc. NOT high grade racing parts, but good street mild strip stuff back then.

I've run 3 bottles of NOS in it over the years. Besides that it's just been run hard on the motor.

Perhaps it was just the rev limiter as you offered. But once it stop running right after I heard the noise it had pretty much no power at all and then just died out about a minute later.

When I get my new spark plug wires I'll fire it back up and check the timing and see if I see the timing move for no reason as you offer. If I do I'm going to try relaxing the timing gear and chain and cross my fingers.