OK, I was able to get back to the task at hand, and test some of the suggestions.

Massey: No we didn't gap the piston rings before installing them. I don't think I have ever heard of that. They were stock rings and the installation instructions never mention it ..... so no we didn't know.

Gorn: As mention in the first post we have 12 plus volts at the starter terminals when cranking. So I don't think its a cable issue.
It is not hard to turn by hand with no plugs installed. And the starter does turn the engine over fairly fast with no plugs. You can hear the compression escaping out of the plug holes.

We put a single plug in and turned the engine over by hand. We did this for all 6 cylinders. We checked the gap before and after each test, no change in the gap. So I'm now guessing that the piston is not hitting the plug.

We put 2 plugs in and tried to crank with the starter. When it got to one of the cylinders with a plug in it the starter would not be able to continue. Just started clicking. We waited some minutes and then moved the crank about a quarter on an inch to allow the starter to disengage. And the crank cycle would continue until the next cylinder with a plug in it was encountered. With the same results. So it does appear that the cylinder will bleed down after a few minutes allowing the starter to continue.

I think I've gotten all the suggestions work out. Any "next steps"?
Thanks again for the helps.

 

When a starter can not turn a motor over because of damage it makes a humming noise. Kind of like a old washer just as it kicks on. When the starter click it is starving for power. I am not say you don't have a engine problem but you do have a starter/eletrical issue.

I have turned the keys on a lot of locked up motors and the last thing you want to hear is that humming from the starter. I did have an old 3800 in my bay one time that clicked but once I tracked down the click then it hummed,,,, Customer was not to happy about putting a new ground cable in a car with a blown motor.

 

Gorn:
You nailed it. It was a ground wire running to the firewall that was not tight. We had put it in and only finger tighten it, and forgot to go back and tighten it up. Once we tighten it down and put the plugs in and finished installing the rest of the engine. It cranked right up. THANKS!
Smoking like a cigar bar from the oil we put in the plug holes for the extra lube, and sounds like we may have a lifter a little off torque specks. But at least we can move on.

Thanks to you and all the members that jumped in and helped. I'm really not sure we would have caught that one with out the help.

 

Was that ground a wire or a cable? A negative battery cable directly to the block will give you a much better ground for the starter than a jumper wire from the firewall will, even if that setup may be factory.

 

That's wonderful A1 the sound of victory.

 

Camaro 69: There is a cable running from the battery to the block. This was another one running from the block to the front fender weld. More like a strap rather than a wire or cable. We had only fingered tighten it because we wasn't sure of the routing. Didn't want it to get in the way of the steering linkage.

We ran it about 30 - 40 minutes last night. Let is reach operating temp, and checking gages for proper readings. Today we are going to check for drips under the car, and top off any fluids that may need it.

Edwardgp: It does sound sweet, esp after 7 weeks of part time working on it.

 

Your ground battery cable is going to need replaced at some point. The ground strap you tightened is suppost to supply additional grounding to your chassie. Your chassie is also gounded up at the fender. That means right now some of your starting power is flowing thru the chassie to get back to the battery. When everything is working right the power should flow thru the main battery cables and not involve that ground strap at all.

I don't think it need to be done right away but once things calm down you should swap out the ground battery cable. If I had to guess I would guess about 5-10% of all 10+ year old cars would fail a voltage drop test on their battery cables.

Glad you got things worked out.

 

Ok here is new update car is running good however... we have a lot of blue smoke coming out of the exhaust pipes. We are thinking it maybe sticky fuel injectors, anyone know of any tests that can be ran to identify the problem???

 

Blue smoke is burning oil, Injector issue should give you black smoke. Let it run for a bit then pull the plug on the troubled cylinder. If that cylinder is the issue it should have then there is a couple of things that can be going on. Did the machine shop remember to install valve seals? How many miles where on the engine? is the cylinder is out of round and you put round rings in then they will burn oil. You will also have a lot of blow by.

If it is not the "trouble" cylinder it could be the intake gasket. Did you have any issues when install the intake? You know you can not reuse the gaskets?

 

Gorn: thanks for the reply after doing a little research i ruled out the fuel injectors. i'm not positive on if the machine shop added new valve seals or not i'll have to dig out the receipt. The engine had 130,000 miles on it when I started the rebuild. I have not drove the car yet, we have only let it idel for maybe 1.5 hours total since the rebuild was finished, I was hoping maybe the piston rings just havent had a chance to seat themselves yet.