Got the cam back from OC. Here is the specs.

Paint on the block looks good. Hope it holds up.
I had a big idea to paint my /6 with a compressor and a paint gun. That backfired. I like the other por 15 products so I tried their engine paint. Never again. Though I admit it was an old batch.
My engine too came back from the machine shop painted (primered?) gray. I went to spray it, I used a small "detail" gun since I was just doing 1 engine.... It came out "watery" and after several coats it looked more "anodized" than painted. I ended up doing exactly what I was trying to avoid once the gun sprayed paint tacked up and that was to spray bomb it with duplicolor engine paint.

Cam is in and bolted up the oil pump. It's tight. Tough to spin the cam with the oil pump in place. Is this normal? New old stock mopar oil pump. Finally starting to put this together.

ETA Picture of cam before installing.

shouldnt be.
did you spin the cam by itself before you bolted up the pump? Could be "tight" cam bearing or a burr.
I mean yeah, youll feel some drag with just the cam and oil pump but it shouldn't be "tight"

Agreed, many times the cam bearings are tight.
Some sanding and fitting is normal.
Of course it will work its self in after the break in period.

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Hyper_pak

Cam spun freely. With the oil pump in it just moves forward and backward. I can get the oil pump to spin but it takes effort to hold the cam in place. Went ahead and put the crank in. Had trouble getting the 3 oil rings to slip into the groves. Number 1 piston took a bit of fiddling then they popped in. 2nd piston the bottom ring and wavy ring would not fit in the groove. Guess I wasn't holding my stuff right. Will try again tomorrow. Tired and going to bed.

I loosened the oil pump bolts and the cam spins freely. Tightened bottom 2, with the oil engine upside down so the top 2, and still spins freely. Held the pump away from the cam. Started to tighten the bolts that would push the gear drive closer to the cam and it gets tight. Thinking I should swap my old gear on. Searched and found a bunch of failures but nothing saying tight on install.

The back of the cam timing gear basically keeps the cam from going too far back. That may be some of the issues of "hard turning" is that you weren't lined up exactly where it wants to go

Trying to keep the gears centered on each other when turning. It is not the original cam. OCG sold me a blank rather than weld up the old fuel pump lobe.

Does the oil pump push forward and the cam lobes push backwards? That seems to be what I remember. Would not like the cam trying to grind through the timing chain cover.

Oregon cams welded my fuel pump eccentric. Cost $40 for that and regrind to stock usable. Over and above the price of the regrind. I have damneer as much in shipping back n forth as I do in the regrind+ fuel pump lobe repair.

A reweld is $50 now and they sold me a new blank for $30.

I put the old pump in with the old original gear and it spins free. Has a little play in the 2 gears. I will put the old gear on the new pump and try that. Hope I didn't ruin the gasket by tightening the old pump to the block.

Put 4 more pistons in and stopped for the night.

There are 4 marks on one side of cap nuts. The other side is smooth. Which side goes toward the rod? Some are shiny on one side and others are shiny on the other.

Added a dog picture at the bottom. She is a good girl helping me in the garage.

Update. Found some problems.

1st I marked the connecting rod caps before removing. #1 cap was on backwards. Probably not a big deal.

B.) The machine shop installed the pistons backwards. Notch to the front and oil spray holes are on the wrong side. Not the cam side. Of course they are all installed with rings before I noticed.

Back to the machine shop or spin them around.

Deleted.

Don't want to bring up the uncle Tony battle about running pistons backwards again but I'm sure it's coming

Back in the '70's I ran the pistons backwards in my 170 valiant. Didn't notice any extra noise, but was running loud exhaust. Don't know if it did any good, but at the time it was the "hot trick".

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Charrlie_S
65 Valiant 100 2dr post 170 turbo
66 Valiant Signet 225 nitrous
64 Valiant Signet
64 Valiant 4dr 170