OK -so I have finally been able to get back to work on this car.

I checked oil pressure while cranking using the Ohmmeter method mentioned above. I started with 8 Ohms before cranking, 13 Ohms while cranking and 11 Ohms after cranking. From this I assumed I had oil pressure.

So I reassembled and fueled the engine and put Lubrimoly in the main filter and attempted to fire it up a number of times. No luck -I got some popping and some smoke, but nothing else -and most disturbingly a "bonk,bonk,squeak......bonk,bonk,squeak", and slower-than-normal cranking with a freshly charged battery.

Looks like gunk in the tank was NOT the problem.

Could I have skipped a tooth on the timing chain? Does that make any sense? I am really puzzled.