New parts, now won't start

[Mrturner1]

I swapped a busted Edelbrock for a new Holley 650 DP, and a locked out GM HEI for a new MSD street Fire HEI, and a crappy alt for a new Powermaster 105 alt, and now it won't start. It tried a couple times but that's all I could get it to do.

Any ideas? I dropped the distributor in exactly how it came out. And it's getting fuel because the carb squirts...

[Mrturner1]

Overview if this helps

[Mrturner1]

Anybody have any ideas? It ran before even with the cracked carb and the weak alternator. I'm totally stumped and want to drive this thing

[Kennuck]

Did you check for spark? When it tried to start was there any backfiring?

[drewbert41]

New alternator hooked up right? Sounds electrical to me.

[Mrturner1]

I didn't check for spark because it tried a couple times but I'll make sure right now.

[Mrturner1]

Originally Posted by drewbert41

New alternator hooked up right? Sounds electrical to me.

Actually all I did was unplug the clip and then plug it in to the new one on the alt

[Mrturner1]

Originally Posted by Kennuck

Did you check for spark? When it tried to start was there any backfiring?

Just checked and it has a nice strong spark. No backfiring, it barely tried.

[Kennuck]

If you have fuel and spark it should run. Are you sure the dizzy is clocked properly? It will act like this if the timing is off.

[Mrturner1]

Originally Posted by Kennuck

If you have fuel and spark it should run. Are you sure the dizzy is clocked properly? It will act like this if the timing is off.

I thought it could be 180* out but I'm positive I put the new one in just like the old one came out. I guess I'll have to pull it and try the TDC #1 process

[Grumpy old man]

Always Mark the rotor position when lifting the dist it will clock the oil pump forward making the timing advanced when dropping the new one back in .

[Mrturner1]

Originally Posted by Grumpy old man

Always Mark the rotor position when lifting the dist it will clock the oil pump forward making the timing advanced when dropping the new one back in .

When I pulled the old one out it was pointing at #6 so I figured just position the new one the same way. I must have put it back in wrong. Another thing I did was take the distributor cap off and removed the actual rotor when I put new weights and springs in. Can the rotor be re installed pointing either way or is there only one way to screw it back on?

[Mrturner1]

I turned the motor over til it was at #6 TDC and dropped the distributor in with the rotor pointing at #6 and no change, still won't start. I'm stumped on this one. The carb squirts and I pulled a plug and it's sparking like crazy

[Mrturner1]

Ok, so I took the valve cover off and started at square one to totally rule out the distributor being a problem. Turned the motor over to #1 TDC, bothe valves closed, and pointed the rotor towards #1. Still nothing

There's a metal flap where the choke it on the carb, is that supposed to open when the throttle is opened?

[Mrturner1]

Ok it fired up and I kept it running, but I had to crank the distributor WAY over counter clockwise. See the picture and then let me know what you think

[Mr Handy]

I would slow down, sounds like you have insured that it is not electrical, also sounds like you are sure its not fuel because you have fuel in the carb.
I say it has to be timing still. Take you time, check the firing order a couple times, its easy to cross wires and otherwise get things wrong. At this point I would roll the engine over to TDC and stab the dizzy back in and see what you get. If nothing, over again and stab it back in.
If all else fails start rotating the wires around the dizzy till she hits.

[Mrturner1]

Originally Posted by Mr Handy

I would slow down, sounds like you have insured that it is not electrical, also sounds like you are sure its not fuel because you have fuel in the carb.
I say it has to be timing still. Take you time, check the firing order a couple times, its easy to cross wires and otherwise get things wrong. At this point I would roll the engine over to TDC and stab the dizzy back in and see what you get. If nothing, over again and stab it back in.
If all else fails start rotating the wires around the dizzy till she hits.

I pulled the distributor and checked everything and it did fire, but only after I turned the distributor way to far over counter clockwise. The vac canister is almost pointing forward

[kwmech]

It's off 1 tooth.

[Mrturner1]

Originally Posted by kwmech

It's off 1 tooth.

So I need to turn the oil pump shaft and rotate the distributor one more post?

[GR8-68]

Originally Posted by kwmech

It's off 1 tooth.

[Grumpy old man]

Originally Posted by Mrturner1

When I pulled the old one out it was pointing at #6 so I figured just position the new one the same way. I must have put it back in wrong. Another thing I did was take the distributor cap off and removed the actual rotor when I put new weights and springs in. Can the rotor be re installed pointing either way or is there only one way to screw it back on?

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

[min]

Originally Posted by Mrturner1

So I need to turn the oil pump shaft and rotate the distributor one more post?

Yes. Turn the oil pump shaft till the rotor moves back enough. You might half to take it in and out a couple times till you get it right. Also you can move all the plug wires over one spot.

[Grumpy old man]

Don't move the wires , fix the problem .

[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.

[toolboxchev]

Originally Posted by kwmech

It's off 1 tooth.

X2 or two teeth