Greetings, the cylinders were honed very lightly (the original cross checking was still evident on the cylinder walls). Local machine shop did the cyl. head - valve work, inspected the pistons etc. I assembled the engine. The cam is the Isky "street torque" marketed by IPD which should replace the stock cam (which was worn out for some reason) without causing valve train problems. I'm thinking that I goofed the ring install somehow or got the timing slightly off, or the dist. retard/advance is wrong. I can't see how the cylinders could be badly out of round if the original checking was visible on the walls. Thanks for all the input folks. I'll keep on 'til I get it right.
Mike