[T3] rebuild woes

["Rustad, James R" <James.Rustad@pnl.gov>]

<x-charset utf-8>I got the engine fired up yesterday...no leaks this time, but:
 
It was running pretty rough, so I wiggled the FI MPC plugs, and
got it eventually to hit a decent idle, though it was still popping a bit.
 
Then while I was driving over to my local mechanic for some peer review,
the oil light started to flicker at low idle.  So I stopped the car and used
up a few AAA points, and had it towed over to the shop, where it now sits.
 
What do I do now?  Does this mean I have to disassemble the engine again
all the way?  Here are a couple of my hypotheses and I would appreciate any
advice:
 
(1)  I put assembly lube (lubriplate) in the oil pump, as the wilson rebuild
book tells you (or maybe he says vaseline?).  Anyway I remember a recent
post by Jim A. advising against this.  I suppose one possibility is that the 
assembly lube goop is giving my engine congestive heart failure somewhere.
Maybe it ends up at the screen and I will be lucky and can just remove it
and be ok.
 
(2)  I did not do anything with cleaning out the oil passages in the case.
Maybe this was a grave error.  Nor did I check the pressure relief valves
as I had lots of trouble getting the big screws out.  I figured the case worked
before, so it should work now. (Jim A:  if you are wondering, this is not 
the case you sold me last year...I am saving that one for later as I did not 
want to deal with the full flow system until after I have moved and have more
time and money)
 
(3)  I was extremely diligent checking the bearing seating, and the 
case torqued together without problems, so I don't think bearing seating
is an issue.  This would probably create a more drastic problem than
what I have now in any case (no pun intended).
 
I can't think of anything else, so at this point all I can do is check the screen,
and if that's ok, then I guess its another teardown and rebuild from square one.
At least the engine is now clean, so there's not that bother.  But this time I 
am going to work fast (out of necessity) and avoid the lubriplate.  
 
Anything else I can do?
 
Thanks for any advice,
 
Jim Rustad
71 FI Square
 

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