well I have a 73 Camaro 350 that I pulled cuz I was gonna put a comp cam in it. I fixed up the front suspension and everything while the engine was out. I put the cam in, dot over dot, I put everything back together and tried firing it up. It will start but makes a metal pinging sound that is intermittent. I thought it was backfiring or something but I checked my timing and it was all good. Nobody I know even mechanics have any idea what it could be. I got my valves adjusted and everything. So could something have gone wrong internally? w/b asap please thank you!

 

Is the car drivable? how is the power? Did you double check you valve cover clearance? Don't forget to check the cleanace on the oil baffels in the top of the valve covers. Now that its been running you should see shinny marks inside the valve coverif anything is rubing. Could the noise be timing chain slapping the timing chain cover? Cracked rocker arm willmake a funny noise some times.

These are the only things that come to mind, but it's early yet.

 

It starts up and runs, but isn't drivable I wouldn't say. The sound it makes is really like I should know what it is but everything I look at seems to be ok. My clearance is good, I checked that. I have no power whatsoever, my throttle response is horrible, and when I tried taking to the street it shifted all wrong and everything. so I don't know. It sounds like backfiring cuz it will pop or ping, but it is more metal. Like the lobe on the cam got whiped out or something, kinda like a missing noise but it runs on time.