427 s/o engine melt down??????

[HSSS427]

OK, lets see......

Got the Edelbrock Performer RPM intake from Keith Craft. Cut out the rear breather port for my goose neck breather, and then hmmmmmm......where do I add oil to the engine? Guess I will have to get install a removable breather into one of my valve covers.

Keith also provided custom intake gaskets that are gasket matched, and the intake is also port matched to my heads. What a concept, the intake port, head port and gasket opening are all the same size!

Intalled the intake, with a thin layer of Permatex Blue around each port and gobs of it on the rails. Had to cut the 7, 8, 9, 10 bolts off by 1/2" as they are too long for the Edelbrock. The bosses in the intake are not as high for these bolts as on the PI. Anyway, got it torqued down to 34 lbs each.

Installed the push rods, and rocker arm assemblies - no obvious clearance problems with the push rods and intake. Torqued down to 42 lbs.

Now for the lash adjusting. I tried something a bit different. Turned the crank over till the relevant cylinder had both valves closed ie both rocker arms were level and springs were unloaded. Installed the leak down tester in that cylinder and ran a leak down test. Then lashed the valves and ran the leak down again to make sure I hadn't overdone it.

Now the problems: leak down results problems on #1 and #6. All other cylinders were showing 20-25% leak down - in the good range.

#1 showed 45% leak down - in the moderate range
#6 showed no compression. I also tried the compression tester and got a 50 lb reading.

I loosened the rocker arm studs until I could move the rocker arm up and down and there was play between the rocker arm and valve stem. Still no compression to speak of. Turned the engine over a couple of times with the starter motor (Note - remember to take the breaker bar off the harmonic balancer before using the starter - ughhh). Still no joy.

So, I'm at a loss. I guess I could have a stuck valve? The rings are shot? But I got a good reading previously with the old intake on, and I haven't touched the heads since then.

I haven't put any coolant back in yet, do couldn't test to see if I was blowing air back into the cooling system, but I did a leak down before with coolant in and didn't have a problem. I think it's got to be a valve seating issue.

Any ideas?
Thanks!