Oh dear, John... that's worse than mine- plugging off the oil hole through the head gasket to the head- kind of chirped, sounded like a bad water pump. Eveything was Ok on reassembly except for the valve guide seals, which were ruined.

I've had a newly rebuilt engine start knocking at idle, too. Turns out I had put only the top bolt for the starter in, and a harmonic worked the other one just loose enough for *another* harmonic to bounce the starter.

Anyway, a thought- I've had points replaced by someone on a removed distributor during recurving, and for whatever reason he failed to apply any lube on the freshly cleaned lobes. That sqealed like crazy, but since that was all I'd changed that afternoon, I was able to diagnose it immediately.