m50 hard to turn in certain spots?

[rs4pro3]

ok Just mounted up my 92 525i non vanos engine to my engine stand. Tore the valve cover off to do a leak down test(engine in unknown running condition). Any ways I noticed while cranking the engine over by hand to TDC for each cylinder on a few of the cylinders right when the cam would hit the tappets the engine would get hard to turn and you could hear a click, definitely not a nice smooth rotation. Just wondering if this is normal or if the tappets are just binding possible as they don't have any oil on them.

[PiercedE30]

probably just from the lack of oil and it binding a small bit.

[Skafrog]

Are the cams in time?

[rs4pro3]

that's what I was thinking for each cylinder at TDC the lobes were pointing right at the inner bearing cap bolt. I noticed the chain seemed to have a good bit of slop in it as I'd turn the crank, and could move it a tad before the cams started moving. I got the engine free out of my dad's parts car we purchased for body parts. Has 200kish miles, possibly had a blown gasket, and has sat for about 3 years. I tried starting it in the car and it would fire but not catch. Yesterday when I pulled the coils, there was a ton of oil down in the spark plug recesses enough so on cylinder 4 I couldn't see the plug, and the end of the plug boots were cracked so I believe that's why it wouldn't start for me.

[WillisE30]

Engines usually aren't easy to turnover by hand in certain spots, you're compressing the air in the cylinders so there will be resistance from each cylinder's compression stroke.

Also when you first fire up an engine that's been sitting for a long time it usually sounds like total hell till the lifters pump up.

[rs4pro3]

all the plugs are out of the engine so there is no compression resistance. It just feels completely different turning over by hand then my m20's do. But this is the first time I've done any real work on an m50 variant engine.