Fuel and Fire but engine will not run!

[slickeric]

Ok, here is the story... At the beginning of this year I bought a 1987 Chevy Silverado "R10" with a 5.7 liter 350 TBI engine in it. I bought the truck in non-working condition. The previous owner, which is my neighbor basically drove the truck till it laid down and then parked it in front of his house where it just sat. The truck sat up for over a year and a half possibly 2 years. Finally, I decided to walk over to his house and ask him if he was interested in selling his truck. He was, so we worked out a deal and I purchased it from him. Before I bought it from him he let me know that it was not running due to a blown head gasket. When I broke down the engine I discovered that it had both of the head gaskets blown, both of the heads were cracked, two of the pistons were cracked at the guides (or the ears - the lower part of the piston), two of the pistons rods were bent, all of the piston rings and seals were all terribly worn and would no longer expand (a couple of the piston rings were even broken they were so old and brittle), the timing chain was weak with a lot of slack on one side. That is most of the major things this truck had going on with it when I tore it down. So this is what I done to it, I replaced the heads since the cracked ones that were originally on the truck could NOT be repaired. The used heads I bought went straight to my local machine shop for a full restoration. By the way I live in the Houston area. I also purchased new pistons, piston rods, piston rings & seals, new timing chain, gear and sprocket, new camshaft and lifters, new oil pump & screen, new water pump, new fuel filter, fresh spark plugs & wires, fresh distributor along with the ignition coil, new thermostat, new PCV valve, new EGR valve, along with all the proper gaskets and seals to properly put it all back together (i.e. head gasket set, intake manifold gaskets, timing chain cover gasket, etc. etc. etc) Ok, so I put the engine back together, did everything by the book right down to the torque sequence on the heads as well as the tightening of the rocker arms on the push rods. Turned the engine to TDC made sure the #1 piston was at the top of its stroke and the line on the crankshaft wheel was dead on the 0. Dropped the distributor back in on the #1 plug tower, put all the spark plugs in and the spark plug wires on the proper spark plugs (the firing order I followed is 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2 going clockwise from the #1 plug on the distributor which is in the 5 o’clock area when you look at the distributor standing in front of the engine.) On the engine the plugs are numbered (from front of engine to rear) driver’s side 1-3-5-7 and on passenger side (from front of engine to rear) 2-4-6-8. Dropped a hot battery in and gave her a crank… she just spun over but wouldn’t start. So I checked all my fuses in the fuse box under the dash. All of them are good except 1 which is the 1 for the instrument panel. The fuse in it is good just not getting fire to that circuit for some reason. I wouldn’t think that this instrument fuse circuit, that is getting no power would keep the engine from starting. So I figured maybe the engine was on the wrong compression stroke, so I pulled the distributor out and rotated it 180 degrees, tightened it back down and then gave her another spin. Still nothing… I could see the two fuel injectors pulsating shooting fuel down in the intake so I then wanted to check if I was getting spark, so I pulled off each wire and spark plug separately (1 at a time) and put each of them up against the engine block (spark plug attached to spark plug wire & wire attached to distributor cap) all of the plugs are getting good spark. Placed everything back together then proceeded to check the engine grounds, all good in that department. So I proceeded to crank her again, and again nothing. She turns over quickly but will not start. I just don’t understand it if its on time and getting gas and spark, the engine has to start or blow up! Has anyone ever encountered a problem as such as this? Any suggestions… I am drawing a blank here. Let me know what you think… thanks in advance.