[dkirk]

They say confession is good for the soul so here goes. The noise was due to improper lash setting on one cylinder...lash was about .020 instead of .004. This was confirmed by starting the engine and listening with a stethoscope - the out-of-adjustment cylinder was clearly evident. All valve clearances were rechecked just to make sure that my "senior moment" was only present on one cylinder, and this proved to be the case.

I'm not as good of a wrench as I thought I was. Two mistakes made...distributor out by 360 degrees and lash not set correctly on one cylinder. I do know that all fasteners were torqued properly and double-checked, and hospital cleanliness was maintained.

The engine now starts right up and sounds perfect. Exhaust is clear and no oil leaks. Weather does not allow a test drive today but will report how this goes in a future post.

Thanks to all that answered my questions and offered valuable suggestions - greatly appreciated!