Just an off the wall thought that the engine might be turning over the wrong way but that would cause a multitude of other problems like only 1 forward gear and 3 or 4 reverse eek
I looked at the pics again and I see that the cam gear looks loike it was riding high on the distributor,,,,,, There are two different cams for these engines large journal and smaller journal. I do not remember which is which and just got to thinking about the compatibility. It shouldn`t realy mater as the cam is stil centered in its bore. It just has different size bearings.

http://www.vapinc.com/chevy/Camshafts/main.html

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