Like others said, the broken piece off the starter was the cause of the jam. Ive had that happen before. You would be amazed how small of a piece it takes to jam the flywheel when turning over by hand. The other problem was not knowing where the timing is.

Going to get to putting her back together now.... I thought that I had found all the pieces, but probably not.

Regarding timing, I was pretty sure I was close. I marked everything before taking it all apart. I guess I shouldn't have assumed.

An update will be coming a little later today.

Thanks guys!

Ended up working on trailer lighting for a good part of the day, but got to it after dinner. The valvetrain is good, no issues seen. I couldn't get the starter done because of some issues with the old one that I had laying around. Headed to West Marine here in a minute to go get a new one.

While we were at it, checked the alignment (which ended up being spot on... all from setting the engine with an angle finder and forklift... I was quite impressed), got the drive back on, and everything else together.

I'll put in the starter this afternoon, then do a compression test for good measure, and we should be good to from there.

** Update **

Figured out why she was backfiring. Also verified that timing was not the issue. In fact, I was just about on the money.

Anyway...

The backfiring through the intake is happening on number one. Why? Because the lifter pumped and won't bleed down. Going through the adjustment, I get the exhaust valve open, then go to adjust. I take out the slack then give it an eighth of a turn. Roll her over to TDC, put air to the cylinder, and it comes out of the blower. Backing off the rocker seals the cylinder tight... tight enough to roll the engine backward.

WTH?

Anyone run into this and have a fix that doesn't require taking the blower and intake off... again?

I forget tom, are those flat tappets?

When you are adjusting the lash, is the lifter plunger depressing, or the valve itself opening? You sure the lifter isn't collapsed and bottomed out?

1/8th of a turn on a hydraulic isn't enough preload imo. Not that thats your problem, but......

Joe,

The cam is a Bob M 525 EFI copy, and I'm using Comp 854S-16 lifters. I cannot see the lifter because it's hidden by the cylinder head casting. I'll go out in a minute and use my bore scope to see if the lifter is indeed collapsed or just solid stacked.

1/8 preload was just for testing... these lifters require a half turn for preload (.030-.040).

Bad lifter... or bad installation. Either way, it's collapsed. Great.

Let me just add, I've done plenty of these in the past, and with this exception, had not had one go bad like this. I spun the polylocks done until there wasn't any up and down slack, then half a turn. I guess this one was a bad apple.

Going back to my other thread about ignition... my thought now is that I was chasing the ignition problem as well as the hanging intake valve. The module was definitely bad (corrosion coming through the pins), but I think the new ignition helped mask some things. My thinking is that when the engine warmed up good, the lifter would try to pump up, negating preload, and holding the valve open.

My guess is a bad check valve in the lifter. I'll take it apart for curiosity's sake when I'm done repairing.

I ordered two pairs of replacements last night. I'm going to replace the bad lifter, examine and adjust the entire vlavetrain, and hope to have her back together by the weekend.

It seems like I've been hearing a lot about bad lifters lately. I was watching a show on the idiot box where they were in a nascar engine room and they've got fancy shmancy machine microscope just for checking the lifters. The reject rate was ridiculous.

Is it possible that the ignition backfire traumatized the lifter?