NEED HELP on 318!!!!

[66charger73]

A few weeks ago my oil pressure dropped like a rock to nothing at an idle and I knew something was wrong. This is a 73 by the way and is a daily driver for me going to tech school and work. I pulled the whole thing apart and found the main bearings were almost non existant. Anyways i got a remaned crank new bearings and the mopar perf 761 cam and put comp 911 springs and edelbrock double roller timing set installed straight up. I primed the oil pump and showed plenty of pressure. Cranked the motor to start it and it just kept turning over without even a fart. After a few rotations i still couldn't find the timing marks. I pulled the no 1 plug and checked to see where the piston was and it just stopped cranking. I pulled the valve covers and found the exhaust valve pushrod is bent. Why did it crank a few revolutions with out a problem?

If you guys have any ideas on whats the first thing i should look into please let me know because i need this car back asap. Thank you very much.

[grouseman]

If several pushrods are bent, then I'd say you had severe cam alignment issues.  But since it's only one, perhaps that one just didn't seat correctly or slipped out and jammed somehow. 

Double check that cam timing is correct.  If you lined the dots up, were they next to each other or both at 12 o'clock?  You may just have to reset the distributor 180 degrees. 

Check the ignition completely over again if you aren't even getting a sneeze.  Are all the wires hooked up?  Check for spark.  Harness tight? 

Let us know what else you've tried.  Good luck. 

[66charger73]

Pulled the intake and heads off and found the exhaust valves had hit the top of the pistons and a few had broken off and gotten mashed into the piston head. Heads and valve seats look ok but one piston has at least a 1/4 inch deep gash in it so I probably should pull it back out and replace the stock flat top pistons with something else.

Let me know what you guys think. Thanks

[terrible one]

How's the wall?

[66charger73]

The cylinder walls are fine and i corrected the timing chain problem and i ordered new valves to put it back together and i'll just run it the way it is I just need to keep an eye on it because of that piston.

Another question, do you guys think i should get chrome moly pushrods or just a less expensive stock replacement type?

                  Thanks again
                     Andrew

[BigBlackDodge]

The cylinder walls are fine and i corrected the timing chain problem and i ordered new valves to put it back together and i'll just run it the way it is I just need to keep an eye on it because of that piston.

Another question, do you guys think i should get chrome moly pushrods or just a less expensive stock replacement type?

                  Thanks again
                     Andrew

When the timing chain went on my '74 318 it bent 8 valves................but all the pistons were just fine. I used the stock pushrods on mine when it went back together.....no problems.

BBD