getting my truck started

[cranky84]

i finally started to work on my truck. i knew the lifters has to be adjusted so i took of the valve covers. saw that i need some push rods, one of them didnt have one, and the other one was bent and fell through. so i took off the dis cap and the intake manifold and put some new ones, put back on the intake and the dis cap. lined everything up and now it wont start? it turns over but doesnt fire. all the plug wires are in the right spot. what am i doing wrong? the motor is a 454 that is out of a 74-75 suburban.

[butch86]

could be a few things wrong but did you check to see that your #1 piston was on top dead center on compression stroke and line your distributor up on #1 hole? and make sure you plugged the coil in good those i would check first. make sure you didnt break the connection inside the wire when unplugging the coil hot wire. if its and hei and you dont have the oem plug and use slip plugs make sure its not on the tac side of the plug.

[UPNADM]

Do you have the distributor in the right position?

[cranky84]

Yeah. Before I did all of this not too long ago, like a month or so ago a buddy of mine came over and timed it and everything. It ran fine besides the lifters. I marked it with a marker where the cap was before I moved anything and lined it back up and when I try to start it, it blows some out the carb

[bilfman]

In my opinion definitely the distributor, lift it and get the rotor turned 180 degrees and I put money on it starting.

[cranky84]

I'll try moving the rotor tomorrow. Is it a problem if I can pull the distributer up? I thought it shouldn't do that. There is a little bracket but that's not really working.

[86 K-10]

Originally Posted by cranky84

I'll try moving the rotor tomorrow. Is it a problem if I can pull the distributer up? I thought it shouldn't do that. There is a little bracket but that's not really working.

i agree with everyone else, you're dizzy probably isnt in the hole correctly. i'm assuming you checked your fuel supply?

no, you shouldn't be able to pull the dizzy up once it's clamped down with the bracket.

[cranky84]

here is what some push rods looked liked

[terryj]

Did you find out what caused the bent push rods?

If you backfiring through the carb when trying to start the truck, you have a timing issue.

[cranky84]

There was one lifter per side that wasn't working/hooked up. When I took the intake manifold off I found the push rods and one of the rockers (the piece the push rod sits in and that touch's the cam shaft) wasn't even in there. It was just laying there. So i put that back in. I honestly dont know how it started and drove.

[terryj]

First of all, I would want to find out why the push rods bent, they bend for a reason. Typically the bend is caused by the valve making contact with the piston, this can happen when the valve timing is off due to timing chain problems. This can also damage your lifter causing your engine not to fire correctly due to valve issues. I'd be checking these things out before trying to start the engine, you could do more damage by just replacing the push rods.