The vertical lines in the bore are concerning to me.  I'm assuming these were not there when the engine came back from the machine shop? 

Bolted to Floor wrote:

For Prof, have you tried the embed feature for sharing the pics? With Flickr, using the BBCode choice shows the picture instead of a link in the posts.
 
 Gaba, I sure hate to see you have to go through this. Several of us have already....this is not a place where misery loves company!! 
 
I do see the marks on the bearings, do the pictures do them justice…. are the groves better or worse than they appear on the computer screen. Will a finger nail grab on any of the groves in the bearings? I don’t know that bearing material is gonna cause that much wear for the cylinders.
 
With the buildup on the piston tops, could there have been a vacuum leak? How does the intake ports look on the heads? Intake gasket was sealed well?
 
You mentioned the flex plate bolts imprinted on the torque converter. Is there a chance of a this pushing the crank forward? How does the thrust bearing look and did yall measure it before pulling it apart?
 
Did the cam turn freely in the block during assemble?

And finally, what's the story with this comment??

MS wrote:

Don’t forget about the most important engine assembly procedure used.

Park the incomplete assembly near workbench. Use angle grinder to distribute grinding dust all over the shop.

Just sayin’… might not be the cause, but…

 

no bearings look just as they seem in the pics. No deep grooves, nothing catches the nail.

Cylinder wear... i didnt think there was bad cylinder wear. The vertical lines are smooth and dont catch the nail

Build up on piston tops.... Vaccum leak not that I know of. The gaskets were glued on so well, I am having a tough time cleaning them off the heads now. oil blowby.. maybe.. i dont know how to tell.

it could be, I am going to possibly use thinner head bolts the next time to make sure that doesnt happen. Also the engine to Torque converter alignment was hard to accomplish with me on the back. I could have made a litte alignment mistake.

Thrus bearing side is pictured above with multiple pics.. chekc it out , let me know what you think.

Did cam spin freely during assembly >. NO .. not as smooth as i have been told it should have been. It was hard to spin even with the timing gear on. or hard to start spinning

Story on that comment is.. engine was built and sitting with valve covers not installed on the engine stand..

About 10ft away, my buddy and I start cleaning accessory brackets for the engine, to scour them, get rust off so we could paint them . The shop fan was blowing, as it was hot, and then I look over and see a fine misting of those shavings on the top of the rockers... and I stopped all operations, cleaned it best I could, covered it, and crossed my fingers.

but even if that was an issue, I had 3 oil changes on this oil , and the bearing material KEPT coming. never stopped.
 

I'm liking the way Bolted to the Floor is thinking about the torque converter might be pushing the crank forward.

Gaba, did you confirm there was a gap between the flex plate and torque converter before bolting them together?

The machine shop I use told me to clean all the cylinders with ATF before assembly then lather the pistons and cylinders real good with it. The rubbing from the dampener and the fly wheel is a hint to some sort of issue. The front cam bearing is real close to the oil pump and the first area to receive oil from the pump. I don't see that bearing as the cause. Because it got "filled" with metal makes it hard to turn. The two black pistons most likely are that way because of the plugs not firing causing the oil to not get washed out when the gas is not ignited. Check your distributor gear real closely and the cam gear. You should only see a slight decolorization towards a silver color. A roller cam gear and distributor gear need to be totally compatible. No guessing. If you are using your original distributer I would say that is your problem. The gear can be changed. 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3vmwwtkm77f4ejr/Photo%20Jun%2015%2C%2010%2005%2018%20AM.jpg?dl=0

Here is the distributor gear

The engine had been throtoughly washed with a pressure washer and soap before assembly

Engine also had three complete oil changes .

Oil filter only showed shiny non magnetic material being caught as I saw it

It’s going to a new machine shop today — Kim barr.. Kim barr had a theory that he thinks the engine components were not balanced properly .. but definitely wants to redo all line hones, cylinder hones etc.

New rings will go in no question asked . I was worried I had gapped them wrong , and I will redo those with new cylinder hone.

Kim barr also said to bring the cam , as he has noticed a bunch of “bowed” cams from factory. 0.005 off .. with a total clearance available on the bearings of 0.003 .

He insisted that bring the new cam to him to check the new bearings with towards the end of his work

Still a 2 -3 week wait

Bearing Bob wrote:

I'm liking the way Bolted to the Floor is thinking about the torque converter might be pushing the crank forward.

 
Following my train of thought can be a dangerous and frustrating thing. 
 

MS wrote:

The torque converter would have to have been improperly installed in the transmission for it to be pushing the crank forward. I would think that would have been a very noticeable TRANNY IS NOW GARBAGE signal rather than anything else.

It is the purpose of the flexplate to hold the converter fully seated in the crankshaft, and it cannnot push forward on the crank. Heck it can slide fore and aft far enough to get the converter studs out of the flex plate. I doubt there is any issue there.


Gaba, what was the end play in the crank when you assembled the engine?

 
My train of thought was more along the lines of the torque converter snout being bigger than the back of the crank. If the TC couldn’t mate flush with the flex plate, then the flax plate gets pulled to the TC with tight bolts and causes a bowl effect on the flex plate. Still can’t say for certain it would cause thrust wear. I would be interested in before and after end play measurements as well.
 

Gaba wrote:

It’s going to a new machine shop today — Kim barr.. Kim barr had a theory that he thinks the engine components were not balanced properly .. but definitely wants to redo all line hones, cylinder hones etc.

Kim barr also said to bring the cam , as he has noticed a bunch of “bowed” cams from factory. 0.005 off .. with a total clearance available on the bearings of 0.003 .

He insisted that bring the new cam to him to check the new bearings with towards the end of his work

 
I would need more details on how an imbalance can cause the issues you are seeing. I would think it would have been shaking the car if it was out that far. I can believe a cam that’s not straight. I wouldn’t take the last guys word for any work performed, I would expect him to go over the block again and check everything.
 
Will you be replacing the cam you just removed? Kinda sounds that way.
 
As with most root cause failures, you can’t blame it on one thing. There is a combination of issues that yields the final result.

Update #1

The cam (bought brand new from summit and dip shipped from Howard’s cam) was warped 0.010”

Apparently this is a big issue with cam manufacturers now a days . They have warped / bent cores they are machining .

According to Kim barr 1 or every 5 cams of any company he is working with are warped , that he then has to straighten out ..

The max clearance on a cam bearing is 0.003” so if it’s not within that spec , it ain’t right.

The way I've sen a lot of them packed over the years I wonder if its warped cores or that they got dropped during shipping. 

ALRIGHT FOLKS!!! its built and going! BIG , HUGE , MASSIVE, GINORMOUS thanks to AL McGee and Paul May , for all the help and support and late nights, and broken backs! you both are amazing! Paul helped me by letting me use his lift, and bugging him day in and day out with questions, and texts.. and then doing stuff to my car i was too afraid too !! :D

AL,Thank you for going out of your way to help with this crazy project and sticking with me !

It was a fun time, and stressful time, but it got done!

347 is running well !! i will post details about the engine, and pics and videos later.

That's got to be a good feeling, congrads!

Happy for you brother. It's good to have friends willing to help. Heck, I'd rather work on someone else's car than mine.

I’m glad it’s up and running brother.