My 318....Is no more..... :(

I only mentioned it because there is nothing else in your motor that I can think of that would make noise and not show any metal shaving in the oil. On my recent 340 build I installed a new bushing and it was very tight. As I told you in the previous post, you may want to check your transmission oil for tell tale signs of any problems. When you took it out for a drive did it make the noise right away after it warmed up? Did the transmission seem to work properly (shifted normal, went into gear right away) things like that?