Installed new lifters to fix the notorious "tick tick" noise on the exhaust valves, put on a new timing chain with the timing lined up as should be, and now the motor will not make a full turn when I ratchet the crank pulley, it makes about a 75% turn and gets stuck, like something is hitting. When I turn it the other way, it does the same. I removed the cams, and nothing is stuck down, but the motor still wont make a full rotation by hand.
Any help would be great!

 

Are you sure you didn't drop a valve? When you removed the keepers did you have each piston at TDC and the cylinder pressurized to keep the valve up?

EDIT: thinking about it again, you wouldn't be able to put the keepers back on if the valve was dropped so I'm thinking you're timing is off. Hopefully the valves haven't been damaged....

 

Ok serious necro, I know. but this is the only thread I've seen with this issue I'm having with no resolution reached. Similar scenario, all timing components off and cam gears were off but no further. I have made 300% sure cam gears were put back and the timing was done right as per the fsm with all new components. The engine still gets stuck around 75% of the way, and get stuck the same place in reverse. but it will go past this hard spot with a firm bump on the ratchet i have spinning the crank, and sometimes it's harder to get by than others. boroscoped the cylinders and didn't see much besides carbon buildup. Worried to put this whole thing back together and into the car now... Any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

This is with all the spark plugs removed yes?

 

Yep, all plugs removed, all tensioners hooked up right, not skipping teeth or anything when turned.

 

Sounds like you skipped a tooth on the timing assembly and are impacting something. Take off the timing chain tensioner cover, the water pump cover, and borescope those to see if there's any obvious signs of something broken.

Also pull the lower oil pan, borescope up towards the timing chain cover and see if there's broken pieces of the timing chain guide hanging out in the oil pan.

Also pull the flywheel/flexplate access plate to inspect the bellhousing for any debris but I doubt that's it.

 

Engine is out of the car on a stand, timing cover and upper oil pan is off. No debris or anything that would physically impede the bottom end anywhere. All brand new timing components. I have redone the timing multiple times, following factory service manual each time, all to the same result. Even had a friend do it on his own to make sure I wasnt making the same mistake over again, and it's the same result. Moving soon and probably just going to say screw it and put it all back together and in the car, hoping it's just friction in the bottom end from sitting without oil and brakleen getting into the rotating assembly.

 

What I normally do in questionable situations like that is take the engine off the stand, set it on the ground (build up wood dunnage so it sits sort of level and won't roll over). Put the starter back on, pull all the plugs, compression test each cylinder. Put 1 tsp of motor oil into each cylinder, FILL THE CRANKCASE WITH OIL if it's empty, crank the engine over like 8-10 times to get that cylinder oil evenly distributed before doing the first test. DO NOT USE WD40 in the cylinders for a compression test, it will actually lower the compression readings usually, like significantly. What would normally be a 160psi cylinder when normally operating will only pull like 90-120 psi with WD40 because it washes all the oil out of the lower ring lands and it won't seal. This if fine for initially turning over an old donor motor so you aren't scuffing anything on the inside

Use jumper cables to attach to the starter, there's plenty of room with the headers removed. You should make some kind of trigger for the starter solenoid though (most auto parts houses have marine grade momentary on push button 12v switches, if not go to your local boat shop. I don't really recommend laying a screwdriver across the primary to trigger the starter solenoid when doing a compression test because it's a lot of arcing when doing all those cylinders and you want to make sure you're getting a FULL 7 rotations per test. Little intermittent losses in the starter screws the readings up.

If you verify it has solid compression on each cylinder then just put the engine in, if it's holding compression it's not a cam/crank timing issue. If pistons and valves ever did touch it's not going to hold compression and you'll definitely know.