Confession time. Sixty years ago, the ten year old me, would have started this update with "Bless me father for I have sinned". The me of today would utter words that would get me banned from this forum for perpetuity.
Here goes. When I bought the new distributor, I swore that I had installed it properly and was more concerned with ensuring that I had re-wired the truck properly to service the distributor versus the magneto that was off getting the correct shaft installed. Because I was working alone (as I do 95% of the time), I used a remote starter to run the engine.
Once the engine started, I concerned myself with advancing/retarding the distributor to get the engine to run smoother. Then I. jumped over to the carb and realized that the electric choke was set improperly and fussed with it for a bit. Finally, I grabbed my laser temp gun to check the temp of the thermostat and the radiator to ensure that my electric fan came on when it should. At this time, I heard a sticking hydraulic lifter, so I took the valve cover off and squirted some engine oil over the valve train and onto each push rod. Only then did I think of checking the oil pressure gauge on the dash. Big f'ing mistake on my part. The engine had "0" oil pressure.
I quickly shut the engine off and started investigating the distributor and its length relative to the depth required to drive the oil pump.
I spoke with the engine builder today and confessed my sin to him. He asked if the engine still rotated, it does, both with the starter and with me using a screw driver to inch the flywheel a few teeth at time to get to #1 TDC. He suggested I drain the oil into a clean receptacle and look for metal. I drained the oil and filtered it with a blue shop towel. There are clearly slivers of metal, the split washer in the photo was put there by me, to give something to compare the size, its from a 1/4-20 bolt.
Tomorrow I plan on pulling the oil pan and unbolting one of the main caps to look for damage to the bearings. Wish me luck.
