blueoval: yes, the lifters were primed. on the accessoiry-side of the engine, I have only the timingchain (checked through the fuelpumphole, no visual damage or stretch in the chain), the waterpump (no mechanical drive, it's electric and works fine if runned singularly, just to be sure), the dampner (nothing loose either) and the generator, wich runs quite neatly , actually)

On the back, there's nothing besides the flexplate and the starter. I had to mount it to the transmission, to get the starter on, but otherwise there's no real connection there...(no driveshaft nor converter)...
so if the tranny comes of and I don't find scratchmarks from the flexplate, the next step will be that the pan will have to come off again and I will have to check both the rods and mains as well as that scraper...

One thing though; with a noise like that, there's bound to be something visible to the eye, right? I mean, the noise was mechanical, so something must have been bouncing around (figuratively speaking, I hope!!), so there should be marks where the failure occurred, right?

I have to say, it's quite frustrating to know there's something i must have done wrong, but not knowing what! I really thought I triple checked everything...