My first rebuild, at about 15 years old was a 283 cid chevy. I knew nothing. I got it together, started it up, set the timing and all of a sudden it made a loud noise and stopped! Come to find out, I didn't know that the pistons had to go in the hole they came out of. When I was trying to figure out what happened I looked down the driver side of the engine and there was a rod sticking out. What a mess, but I learned a good lesson. Maybe you got the pistons in the wrong hole. Just a thought. By the way I'm 61 years old now.
