To be honest, it really doesnt sound like the bottom end mate. There is the piston rattle alright but I'm pretty sure its only cam / valve clearance.
I need to set the timing spot on and go from there. I turned it all over by hand just now and checked all clearances, they were checked with cam lobes at 12 o clock.
I have been onto my engine builder and gave him the clearances so just waiting word back. I know the block was built 110% so I know its not that.
Every single thing was checked before engine was put back together, only thing I messed up was mixing the buckets up when I re-fitted them.
Inlet No:7 I could not get any of the feeler gauges under the cam so that would mean a slightly opened valve right?
Would that cause my problem?
no,
set the cam timing correctly this is a piece of piss as the mark is on the exhaust cam and distributor,
set the engione to tdc, and line the marks i just mentioned up, then bolt the distributor up, that will make your engine timed up, the rest is done by the ecu,
the cams should be checked by the following rule,
when valve 1 is fully compressed, check valve 8, when valve 2 is fully compressed check valve 7, when valve 8 is fully compressed check valve 1 etc etc etc,
the fact that you have no clearance on one or 2 of the valves wouldnt make it clunk like that, in fact it would help make the engine dead silent, you'll just burn through loads of valves, and damage valve seats etc and have less compression,
and providing you have checked the valve clearances correctly, i wouldnt have to much confidence in an engine builder who cant even shim cams up properly.
as i said take it back to the builder and get everything double checked