Hi Brian, Glad to hear its alive again!
It might be a good idea to invest in a Mityvac vacuum tester, csearch
www.harborfreight.com for them.
Make sure you don't have any unhooked lines first- then from the main split off the thick line to the brake booster, look for the two brown vac lines. One will be going in through the firewall, the other coming back out the firewall to the shutoff valve at the rear of the injection pump. If those are ok, feel free to IM me on the aol thingy and I can talk you through your diagnosis a little quicker.
What did you find eventually on your tight timing chain issue? I have a 617 head off right now and want to be sure I don't do what you did
