New parts, now won't start

[Mrturner1]

Originally Posted by Grumpy old man

Whatever book your reading or whoever is giving you tuning instructions doesn't have a clue ! Why would you change the weights and springs before you have it running just as it came out of the box ? It could have been perfect out of the box I'm starting to get a picture of your thinking , lighter weights weaker springs increased timing = faster acceleration ? You've got to get off this race engine mindset and just let the engine run and drive . Your on the fast track to a bunch of cool new parts sitting on a blown lower end with an ever widening pool of oil in the garage .at this point you should be the timing genius ! ,do you have a $10.00 remote starter button yet ? I think by looking at your distributor your at least 4 teeth off .start over from # 1 tdc .never turn the engine over when doing a distributor change ,always Mark the intake with a piece of tape to show rotor position and if the new one doesn't just drop back in the most you need to do is use a long screwdriver to turn the oil pump back a hair for it to easily go back where it was . Always work from #1 tdc

Good grief I know you're trying to help but sometimes you don't give me any credit for having listened and learned a little. I'm not just takin shots in the dark here, I've done a lot of research and reading and figured out exactly what I need and what will work best. Almost everything I read is David Vizard and I think you'll agree he's pretty awesome. The new distributor comes from the factory with very very heavy springs in it. The specs are 24 degrees all in at 4000rpm. That's too much timing and way to late for my combo to work the way it's designed to and run efficiently. The springs and weights I put in limit the mechanical timing to 22 degrees, and it's all in at 3000 rpm. This is very conservative relatively speaking, and will run 10x's better than it did out of the box. I bought this specific MSD distributor so that I could make my own timing curve because with my combo of heads cam intake and carb, the factory setting won't work.

No starter button YET, I didn't turn the motor over while doing the distributor change, and I took pictures of the rotor so I could put it back right and was only one tooth off.

Just help out in my threads instead of jumping in to EVERY single one I post and bashing me.

[Grumpy old man]

Originally Posted by Mrturner1

Good grief I know you're trying to help but sometimes you don't give me any credit for having listened and learned a little. I'm not just takin shots in the dark here, I've done a lot of research and reading and figured out exactly what I need and what will work best. Almost everything I read is David Vizard and I think you'll agree he's pretty awesome. The new distributor comes from the factory with very very heavy springs in it. The specs are 24 degrees all in at 4000rpm. That's too much timing and way to late for my combo to work the way it's designed to and run efficiently. The springs and weights I put in limit the mechanical timing to 22 degrees, and it's all in at 3000 rpm. This is very conservative relatively speaking, and will run 10x's better than it did out of the box. I bought this specific MSD distributor so that I could make my own timing curve because with my combo of heads cam intake and carb, the factory setting won't work.

No starter button YET, I didn't turn the motor over while doing the distributor change, and I took pictures of the rotor so I could put it back right and was only one tooth off.

Just help out in my threads instead of jumping in to EVERY single one I post and bashing me.

We're not there we only "see " what you write ,not bashing you! something that gets overlooked by many guys is what works perfect for a guy in Florida may be totally wrong for someone in Colorado , fuel type , air density ,ambient temperature , elevation all play a part in combustion. I've never heard of David vizard nor have I ever read a book on setting up an engine all my experience is hands on and seat of pants in the driver's seat evaluation . Books don't build engines they build dollars from selling books .sometimes I forget that I was lucky enough to grow up around some of the fastest most creative custom guys in the country in their day no books required . One of my high school buddies is a very sought after LS tuner based in Indianapolis and flies all over the country just to tune engines , we grew up with a distributor wrench in our back pocket and turned wrenches for a living ! experience doesn't come from a book ,we were doing engine swaps and valve jobs at 15 that was very long ago ! grab a wrench and get greasy . I play with these old trucks because they are old school muscle ,once you add computers and such they turn into late models Pm sent .

[Mrturner1]

So when I take the cap off, the rotor is pointing at #6, and the balancer is at TDC, so how can it be one or two teeth off?

[midniteblues]

I'm with everyone else.

Get the motor back on tdc on the compression stroke and re stab the distributor.

You probably will have too turn the oil pump drive with a long screw driver. Or rotate the motor till it drops in correctly.

Then go from there. It's really the only way too go now.

[Grumpy old man]

Using a remote starter or your wife tapping the key ( that's what I call my girl , my remote starter !) , remove the #1 plug and using your finger over the plug hole tap the engine around until you feel the compression stroke coming up on that cylinder ,it will take you a time or two to get it , now you know your at tdc on #1 ,drop the distributor in with the rotor pointing at the #1 plug wire on the cap now your at least close .I wish you lived closer ,but you would go broke buying Heinekin

The reason you don't change anything on the distributor before starting the engine is YOU CANT RETURN IT , and it will run right out of the box ,possibly better than you may have thought . Always try the easy way first .