Glad you got it figured out. I guess go through everything, make sure crank is happy after the oiling incident, and get her back together. Still some season left.

If you dont my asking how much did you pay for the L29's ?? I have a real nice complete one here I want to sell but not sure how much to ask for it. It is complete from fuel injection to oil pan.

Those timing sets are a little confusing for the first timer me included, put one on my 427 Vette engine, sorry man. lay off the hooch .........

Thanks bud. Head already has new valves and seat. I'll pull the crank etc and give everything a good once over.
$400 each. One of the blocks will need to be bored, but otherwise in excellent condition. They came with an extra 297 head also, but I'll need to do some work to get the exhaust bolts out. Only the bolts were rotted and broke off when he pulled the manifolds. Both set ups were fresh water only from Sebago Lake ME. One block is Mercruiser and the other is Volvo Penta.
If I was a first timer I'd have a better excuse lol All good. Not sweating it. I don't do it every day.

Haven't done any engines in many, many years, please explain what's off since the "0" in on the key?

yhx

He used the keyway to align the bottom sprocket with the top instead of using the "Zero" "dot" on the sprocket. The keyway should be pointed to about 1:30 oclock.

The 0/keyway is lining up with the alignment dot on the cam gear. There should be a corresponding dot on the crank gear that lines up with the dot on the timing gear for 0/straight up.

They way was installed, the cam was very advanced leading to intake valves smacking pistons.

Could have been a lot worse.

Dave, make sure to get the intake valves checked. It was pretty noise when running and pictures make it look like they were all touching.

**Edit - I saw you mentioned above that you had new valves.

Cloyes version instructions
https://www.cloyes.com/3-keyway-crank-sprockets/

The Zero at the keyway means the cam is neutral. The A2 and R2 is that the cam is physically Advanced 2° or Retarded 2°.
There are dots on the timing gears that need to be aligned, not the Zero at the keyway.

Almost. I'm not looking at the instructions right now, but not quite. That's what I thought and is what got me into trouble here. When the number 1 piston is at tdc the woodruff key should be pointing at about 2 o'clock. The zero mark or neutral on the lower cam gear should should be lined up with the dot on the upper cam gear. That's for the Summit set anyway.
Edit: rookie, you're right, but here is how I set it up on my 69 which is the correct way. What's missing is the printed zero that lines up with the upper dot on my boat 454.
So it's my fault in that I didn't notice the marks were missing and I lined it up with the wrong 0.