I was thinking of the cam timing this afternoon. If I had the chain off 180 that might do it.
The chain is 180 off on every other engine revolution. It spins at half crank speed. No loss of compression there or mechanical harm done.
If you installed it upside down it would make the distributor 180 out in relation to the cam. Time the dist and the engine would run just fine.
Ok this is what I found this morning. Messed with the lifters some more. Bleed 2 down stuck them in #1 hole. Compression came up to 75psi but the rocker shaft was lose by .045 to make it work. Not a repeatable way to go. Pulled the front off the engine and looked at the cam/crank timing. It was a 3 slot crank gear. I didn't remember it being that but it was. I had installed the gears as per the instructions on the paperwork that came with the gear set. I pulled the timing gears off and set the #1 cylinder at top dead center. I installed the cam timing gear where it was both lifters closed and compared it for marks. I had put them in 180 degrees by the instructions in the gear set paperwork. Did a compression test with the new configuration and it was 125psi.
So what I have found is the gears were installed correctly as per the instructions but not as per the engine lay out. Misprint? Mis-read? I know it was a couple days of messing around trying to trouble shoot a problem that shouldn't have been.
Ruined 1 lifter messing around with them. Cheap enough at $9.00. Need to reassemble the front of the engine and go for another trial run. Now to get FItech to call me back and sort out hand held programmer problem.
I thank all that gave input to the issue and thoughts of what might have been wrong.
