Update #2-

Tried snugging everything down and reattached the loose bolt to its proper place.
RESULTS: Everything was in spec to begin with except loose bolt.
Loose bolt belonged to rear most exhaust port, top bolt. Reinserted and torqued

Ran engine for ~30 seconds until I heard unuaual high-pitched whine and saw copious ammounts of smoke billowing out from the front of the engine. Immidiatly killed motor and investigated
RESULTS: Alternator has seized and belt was spinning around pully, now melted to the pully.

Loosened the alternator and tried to spin by hand. Encountered inital resistance until I tried to spin it backwards and then it "broke" free and spun marginally. Re-tightened alternator and tried re-starting engine.
RESULTS: Alternator spun as intended, then received a series of sucessive knocks then terminated into a high-pitched whine/boarderline squeel & smoke.

My current belief is that my alternator is toast. My next step will be to cut the belt and try running the motor without an alternator for a minute or so to verify.

Wish me luck!



Scott