I see this thread has been "stuck" - thanks, fellows - I feel flattered, but as of now.... undeserving.

The engine's in, but not right at all. It fired off and ran fine for the initial 20 minute high idle run-in. Oil pressure was about 50 psi on the mechanical gauge..... lifters quieted down to nothing after a few minutes. No leaks.

Changed the oil and filter and went for a drive to seat the rings without realizing I hadn't installed the S/C bypass valve vacuum hose. Started with acceleration/coast runs..... 0-2500, 0-3000, 0-3500, 0-4000, 0-4500...... everything seemed normal, so continued to drive.

On start-up, I had tried to revert to an earlier .msq file to avoid the high VE table values that were set by AutoTune just prior to blower failure.... couldn't get the .msq to change, so used the latest file. I switched on AutoTune to see if it would reset the correct VE table values on the drive.

Everything seemed ok on the drive and after about 15 miles I punched the throttle - no response - engine started to slow down - wouldn't rev - looked at temp... it was ok - looked at oil pressure.... it had dropped to zero on the factory gauge. Stopped, checked the oil - about .5 qt over, the engine was hot but didn't show on the coolant temperature gauge..... would not restart.

After an hour of letting it cool and looking at it, I noticed the missing blower vacuum hose and a weird looking coil wire connection. The wires were new - coil wire distributor connection had not fully seated, and had burned the corner off the tower insulator from arcing..... fixed that temporarily. After cooling, the engine would start, one loud lifter tap, but wouldn't stay running.... so I left it and towed it home yesterday morning.

I reverted to the old dyno-tuned .msq and tried a restart - got oil pressure, but lost it again as the engine warmed.

I've drained the oil again and will take it for analysis - it looks funny - maybe from all the assembly lube I packed in the pump. It may have some gas in it from the bad VE tables and lack of air from the blower not having the bypass vacuum hose attached.

I pulled one plug - very black - checked compression on that cylinder - 165 psi. The heavy black deposits could be from weak ignition caused by the coil wire arcing.

Oil pressure possibilities:

1) The oil pump relief valve stuck open
2) Bad oil filter
3) A/F mixture too rich, gas in sump, high oil level, thin oil, crankshaft whipped up froth, oil pump lost prime.
4) The rear main bearing clearance is too tight.

When I installed the main studs, I didn't use a bore gauge and didn't align hone the bores. The rear bore was tight at .001" as measured by Plastigage, but turned ok by hand with 30W lubrication. I'm wondering if the clearance was too little with heat and if that could cause an oil pressure drop...... I would think the bearing would spin and I'd hear it - but I don't.

First things first - I'll replace the distributor cap, change the oil and filter again and see what happens.

Frank