Car wont start, cant get the timing right.

[Paiste402]

Ive finished putting my motor back together (head gaskets, new lifters and new intake gaskets) but for the love of me i cant get the timing right.

Ive put the motor at TDC and put the rotor on cyl one and that didnt work. Tried spinning it 180 degrees, nothin. Tried depressing a few degrees, i got something and it sounded like it was going to start then back to just turning over. It made some exhaust so its firing but it would follow through. Ive been playing with it for 2 days and thats the closest that ive gotten.

Any ideas?

[Tom_1569]

I havent done any internal work on a V8 but ill take a stab though it may only be relevant to 6's.
Did you line both the cam and crank up to TDC before refitting the heads?
Is it definitly getting fuel?
Is it possible your harmonic balancer has slipt giving you an incorrrect marking of TDC, not sure if you can check these on the Flywheel aswell, or you can do it manuallyby sticking something down the piston till it hits the top (sorry cant remember exactly how to do it)

Is it defintly sparking?
Failing all that, just keep taking the dizzy out and turning it abit each time till you get it to run, thats how I timed my paddock bomb lol. But yeah if you can get it to run by doing that, you know its definitly just the timing out, and you or get someone else to set it properly.

Hope thats of some help... As said in the PM timing isnt my thing haha.

[Paiste402]

yup theres fuel. Cause at one point we got a nice backfire (really, fire. Pretty cool.). Now the car started fine when i got it and i didnt touch the cam or crank so i simply slid the new lifters and pushrods in. Nothing there should have changed.

There is a spark, ive done the screwdriver trick from the leads and coil lead. A nice blue spark so thats fine.

it NEARLY started for me but it would splutter and then wont do it again.

[vn383]

Hey I am having same drama but I think my cam is out 180 degree.See I had a mate helping me and he was meant to be doing the timing side of things.But he fell of the side of the planet.Anyway did you remove timing chain?If so did you line up the timing marks on the chain and sprockets...

[Paiste402]

nope didnt touch the timing chain, didnt touch the cam, didnt touch the crank. But i nearly had her start 5 mins ago. It went VROOOOO splutter stop. But i did find a wire off on a part of the LPG system and the battery is rather dead now. I will get my bro's battery when he gets home and try then.

Oh and Tom i used ur idea of using something to see if the piston is at the top of the stoke through the spark plug hole. I used an old push rod and TDC on the balancer was indeed the top of the cylinder stroke. Thats how i nearly got it to start, thanks dude!

[Paiste402]

she started BUT

when it starts it instantly revves over the readline. I had to turn it off, tried again and same deal. haha WTF?!

[havick vk]

u got the right firing order...and with the revving nothin holding the throttle open

[Paiste402]

no throttles all normal as far as i know. I was told that it was the auto choke being clicked open (cause it had a backfire a few days ago). Anything about that?

[Paiste402]

ok the butterfly valves at the top of my quadrajet are closed tight. Ive been told that that is the problem. I tried to push the little lever down and to keep it down so the valves open but no go. How do i go about this?

[Dayvo]

Do the butterfly valves move at all when you push them? Sometimes when the engine backfires through the carby it jambs them shut agains the carby body .

[Paiste402]

its all fixed. We took the carb off and the backfire must have spun the auto choke over so the throttle was half on even with all the springs in place... or i put the carb on wrong. Im guessing that one... All good now guys!

And thanks heaps fellas, u really helped me to get this car chugging again