Yea right when i saw your post i thought i am dumb haha yea just changing the firing orrder would work well good luck tomorrow when i started my car up i left it connected to another car by jumper cable to help charge the battery up but good luck tomorrow man looks like you got it set now
hey thanks for all replies.... I am thinking thoug, what is this tab on the distributor for? and where should the rotor be pointing when you first install everything? what number should the crankshaft be BTDC when setting up the distributor? in other words...do I put the crank on 10deg BTDC then turn the distributor so the rotor points to the tab (mark) on the distributor? or do i set it at 0 deg TDC and point the rotor to the mark on the distributor?? how is this supposed to work here? thanks
If you had oil coming from all 16 pushrods, then the lifters were pumped up. What you need to do is pay more attention to setting the initial timing correctly so that the engine will fire up immediately. Turn the crank by hand, getting the #1 piston to TDC on the firing stroke (both valves will be closed, rockers lifted up at the valve ends) Then verify the distributor rotor is pointing at about the 1 o'clock postion (and the #1 plug wire terminal on the cap) . Get the timing pointer aligned to the 12* BTDC mark by rotating the crank. Next ground the #1 plug with it removed and placed where you can watch the plug gap, turn the ignition on, (not cranking it) and slowly rotate the distributor back and forth, watching for the spark. When the plug sparks, STOP and lock the distributor down. The engine should now start when you crank it.
I called the camshaft manufacturer a little bit ago and I should have been using the 351W firing order 1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8 ... i already changed it but my battery ran down trying to get it started with the other firing order....hopefully she will fire up this afternoon. Thanks for all the replies.
she still wont run... she will start and try to run but still unable to keep it going...I'm wondering if too much gas got into it... I think I need to have it spin over faster, my battery keeps dying down on me.... time for a new battery and possibly borrow one of those garage type battery chargers with the start mode (50amp)... anyway, still trying... hope nothing is damaged from the previous firing order...is that a possibility?
I wouldn't think that you hurt anything. I would just go through the cold timing process again. Get a good battery and maybe new cables. Remember the motor only needs three things to run...1. compression 2. fuel and 3. spark. It needs all these and in the correct amounts (or times).
That would suck if the cam gets messed up on me because of this...I dont understand why it wont fire up though... sounds like it wants to run but sputters out...
I would take the spark plugs out and make sure they are dry. A lot of damage can be done by cranking the engine too much without it starting. I think the important thing is to take it slow and easy. Put the plugs back in, set the timing like baddad457 explained earlier. It is very important that the two lifters for the #1 cyl be down and the rotor pointed at the #1 position on the cap. You asked earlier what the tab was on the distributor. I think that you might be talking about the distributor cap locating tab. It keeps you from putting the cap on backwards. Put a timing light on it and have someone else crank it so you can see if its firing at the right time. Give it a couple pumps on the accelerator pedal and crank it. If its going to start is should start right away. Again, you do not want to continually crank this motor with it never having come up to full oil pressure.
I finally got it running!! with the assistance of the battery charger/starter... anyway, I got it running and brought it up to 2000 rpm to start the cam break in procedure...after 5 minutes I look around and I notice the #3 and #4 header pipes look like they are glowing red hot!!! so I shut it down... at this point the oil temp was only reading 185-190 deg... but the valve covers seem very hot to the touch... not sure what to do at this point...I'm waiting to borrow a timing light....what would cause it to run hot like that? any ideas? too advanced timing maybe?
That's pretty normal for tubes to glow during breakin. I've had one do it and nothing bad happened. The rest were all broken in during daylight so I never noticed the tubes getting red hot. What did you set the initial timing at ?
really? I would have bet money that something was F'd up... well I'm going to pick up a timing light in a few...I'll messs with it more tomorrow weather permitting..... I still have a hard time believing that it is normal, I mean it was really hot! maybe the water pump had to burp? i just had to add some more water... anyway, the good news is it runs! I'll work out the rest....
even though it was just the top end that was replaced? the bottom end has 10-15K on it... I set it like you said to, 12° BTDC then spun the dist until the spark plug sparked...
