had a gear drive once took the bearings out on the front of the crank
to much pressure. when he started the motor up the gears may have
jammed together and forced the cam gear to stay in one location for a total of one tooth mabe broke a tooth would explane the noise at first and the fact it went away dosent me it will show up in the pan with the first oil change
i would be looking at the gear drive

 

Any answers on this yet....kinda curious....

 

I couldnt find the problem so I took into a shop. They called me today and said one of the problems is the carb. They said the Throttle shaft is worn out and its not holding vacuum, so they can keep the car idleing to see what the timing is at. So Im dropping off a new carb today, and the chase continues..

 

Yea, that loose shaft is not good! I had my Holley 800 reworked by a great carb shop and they made my throttle shaft perfect!

 

the funny thing is the carb was brand new with no more than 2k miles on it??

 

UPDATE:

the carb is on, and the car idles now, but the idle fluctuates and is erratic, due to a timing problem. The car is advancing and retarding itself as much as 8°. The rotor was pulled off the distributor, and the springs inside were broken. They were replaced and the same thing is occuring. Now there is either a problem in the distributor or the gear drive? ANy ideas?

 

is the pickup coil and reluctor inside the distributor tight?

I have seen a few wearout and loosen up

 

well they replaced the carb, and distributor. The car runs and idles now, but the car runs like crap. By "crap" I mean, its real sluggish, and lazy to respond. They didnt hook up the vacuum advance unit for the distributor, which I dont know why. They said It didnt need to be connected. To me it sounds like the timing is just too low and the car is not responsive. They also disconnected my MSD 6A box and said to run the car without it for now and see how it runs. Does anyone know what the timing at idle should be around on a comp 292 cam, stock displacement, with bolt ons? Thanks Guys!

 

Well the car will be sluggish for sure if the timing isn't advancing because the vacuum line isn't hooked up.

 

set base timing at ~10 degrees, you may need to fine tune this, but 10 is a good starting point, as for the vac advance, hook it up, it is needed

 

I set the timing and had a friend dial in the carb and the car was running like a champ! I took the car for a drive, and parked it to get some food. As I got back in the car and started it up and reved it to take off, a small backfire occured and the car wont turn on now. I had to have it towed. I got home, changed the distributor again, and the car simply wont turn over. There is spark, fuel and air, and for some reason the motor just "free spins" sort of say. It sounds almost like if there were no spark present. I pulled the #1 plug off and put my finger over the hole and had someone crank it, and it didnt blow my finger. No compression. I pulled the valve cover off and as #1 piston is coming up, the intake valve is opening, does that make sense?

 

Sounds like one of the problems to me is that the plugs have been fouled and half way cleaned up by the running,then fouled again and now their junk.

If the intake valve is opening when the piston is coming up,thats bad news. Sounds like the timing chain has jumped a tooth or the cam timing gear/crank gear are a tooth off.

 

Good catch !
Sounds like a new set of plugs are needed along with a new timing chain set or timing gears.

 

yes as the piston is coming up, the intake valve was opening. This was a new set of plugs. I am going to pull the cover off today and see what I find. Thanks Guys!