napaunderground (11/17/2022)
Then a horrible noise appeared and started growing louder... I removed the transmission and could tell it was something in the rear area of the engine. I decided based on the blow by and the noise that pulling the engine was the best thing to do.
Turns out, the noise was due to someone in ~1992 (based on the rebuild sticker on the clutch) didn't torque the flywheel bolts and they backed out... were almost completely unthreaded. This pretty well wiped out the crank.
What was the extent of the damage to the crankshaft? Very familiar with the noise that comes from the flywheel bolts being loose. Have had a couple of those on the dyno where the customers failed to properly tighten the flywheel bolts prior to them bringing the engine in for dyno testing.