79transam

well i did have 30 thousandths taken off the heads, but i dont think that would make a difference because im using the factory dished pistons from 1970. talk about a deep dish and i believe the piston at TDC was somewhere between 10 - 25 thousandths. yes, i did prelube the engine. this engine hasnt even cranked so hence, it has run unough RPM to ruin anything. or at least i think nothing should be. i was thinking it may be the transmission, but highly doubtful. or maybe the harsh backfires did the old pistons in. ill just take it apart and see. thanks for all the help you guys.

hi guys, i was wondering if any of you could help me in my delima. i'll start off by naming my components. i have a 70 model F4 W-30 marine 455. on the internals i've got stock crank, stock connecting rods, std. bore pistons (block is standard bore), federal mogul bearings, new melling oil pump, the cam is a factory W-30 i just bought, its a melling as well. rings are speed pro. up top i have a set of ported and polished J heads, stock valves, edelbrock magnum roller rockers, hardened pushrods, guide plates, comp cams hydraulic lifters, edelbrock performer intake, edelbrock 750 carb, accel H.E.I. distributor, dynomax headers,and stock water pump. planting the power from the engine to the tires is a BOP turbo 400, i had a b&m shift kit put in it and had it totally rebuilt with all new parts. ok now for the dilema. a friend and i were tryin to start the engine for the first time. we turned the starter over and all we got were backfires from the carb, and im talkin harsh. so after retarding it and advancing it and only gettin backfires i figured we must have been 180 degrees out. well, i took the distributor out and turned the rotor 180. same results. well i figured we might as well try the other way again. so i pulled the distributor and we were going to put piston #1 on tdc (by hand) and the engine would'nt budge. you may be able to turn it one way or the other slightly but then it will just stop. i even took the spark plugs out and tried to turn it over by hand but no luck. so i pulled the valve covers and none of the valves have dropped and none of the pushrods look bent. so after all the money and time i put in this motor for this just to happen, i just walked out, im sure someone feels my frustration. so any help you guys can lend me will be much appreciated. thanks for your time.