I finally got the heads and intake back on the 86 and now it won't start. I'm pretty sure I borked the distributer reinstall and it's off a few teeth. The car will start with my foot on the gas but it runs terribly. I'm guessing timing because of the backfiring and the uneven header pipe temps - after 2-5secs some are hotter than heck and others are cool. I did make drawings when I pulled it apart but I must have did something dumb when I had everything apart.

Assuming I completely hosed the dist. reinstall, what's the easiest way to get it put back in the right position so I can at least get it running long enough to get a timing light on it?

Thanks!

Get #1 cylinder to TDC then reset the distributor in with the rotor pointed at #1 plug wire location.

Yea, you're off a tooth.

Remember when installing that the rotor's going to turn a bit because of meshing with the cam gear.

And, you'll probably spin the oil pump a bit so the dizzy won't go the whole way down. Just bump the motor over until it falls into place.

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That pretty much sums it up.

#1 TDC on the compression stroke. If you get it TDC on the exhaust you'll obviously be 180 degrees off. The fact that it runs at all rules out that it's 180 off.

The motor was probably moved while the distributor was out after it was marked. Double check your plug wire routing on both ends. On the cap it should follow the firing order clockwise.

Did you get it running afterall?

You may also have the Distributor 180° out.....common common mistake.

You get the teeth perfect....just 180° opposite.....screws with the best of them.

Make sure you don't have a plug wire crossed. I picked out which one I want to be #1 on the cap, then I numbered them all on the cap with a marker, following the firing order around. Makes it very easy to reinstall plug wires and such when working on the car, keeps me from screwing up and saves me time.

As per the pic posted above, you can choose any terminal to be #1 when you install the distributor, as long as you follow the order shown around the cap. When #1 is at TDC on compression stroke (make sure both #1 intake and exhaust valves are closed and the timing pointer is lined up at 0), put the dist. in so it has room to move some in both directions. Whichever terminal the rotor is pointing at, that is number 1. Snug the dist. a little, fire it up, and set the timing with a light.

Thanks for the responses, all! Sorry it took so long to get back to this but I've been playing with my other car and pushed this off.

I turned the engine over to #1 TDC on the compression stroke - I felt the pressure from the spark plug hole as I turned the crank to 0* according to the timing tab.

When I removed the dist cap, the rotor was already pointing at the #1 post (according to the above pic). Maybe I did have it set right?

I'm going to redo the plug wiring - maybe I messed that up. Hopefully, I can get to it this evening.

Thanks!

Do you have a timing light?

Computer advanced distributor?

Isn't there a trick to getting those installed correctly?

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No, they install the same as any SBC, cam/dizzy gears must mesh with the rotor pointing to #1 on the cap.

I hooked all of the wires back up and I'm sure it matches the pic above this time. The car still won't start or run w/o holding the gas.

When it does start it runs pretty much the same as before - missing, rough and won't idle. After 20ish seconds of running, some of the header pipes are cool to the touch (5 & 7 especially) and others hot enough to sizzle when touched.

Even though I haven't been able to get a timing light on it to bring it to 6*, it should still start, right? It looks "close" to where it was as best as I can eyeball it.

I originally took everything apart to put in new valve springs/seals. Does this sound like I maybe messed up when setting the lifter preload?

Thanks!

I am concerned about the cold 5 & 7... that just worries me.

man... If you can find a 2nd set of eyes, just to be sure something hasn't been missed.

Make sure you are actually at TDC on cylinder #1 and your harmonic balancer has not slipped!

Double check the plug wires.

Make sure when you are dropping the dizzy that it doesn't skip a tooth.

Disconnect the EST wire when attempting to set the timing.

Good luck,

Matthew

PS - this is not a rip, but from personal experience the first time I ever did this....did you verify the rotor itself is pointing at #1 and not just the #1 plug on the cap? Ie, the cap should be disconnected from the lower dizzy when reinstalling.

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Yea, me too. I'd pull those plugs. Even if the dizzy was off a tooth, it will still fire those plugs. Pull them & see if they're wet. While they're out ground them and spin the motor to see if they fire (away from any fuel source).

If you have concern with setting up the lifter preload, pull the valve covers and go over them again. Doesn't take long to check/reset, but if one is wrong and you keep running it.....bad things can happen quick.

I finally got back to working on this thing.

I replaced the plug wires since the old ones wouldn't lock onto the cap. Now the car at least runs by itself with the EST disconnected. I managed to get the timing to 6* BTDC but the engine is idling at 400-500RPM and it's very rough. If I plug in the EST it will only idle for a second or two and then die.

I'm also not getting an SES light anymore. I hope it's just the bulb.

Sounds very much like your ECM is toast.

I don't like where this is going... I wonder about the ECM, too. Rare they fail, tho. Could the chips be a little loose?

You don't happen to have a chip adapter and a chip do you? If you do, and you haven't had the car running since you changed it, you might have the chip installed backwards. If the car was running before and you haven't touched this, then disregard this.

I had a distributor go bad and give me very similar symptoms you are having. It would run better with the est disconnected no matter where I put the initial timing, and the header temps were all over the place.

I doubt it's the ecm if it ran before the head swap, and not after. I would resinspect all the wiring inside the distributor. The wiring gets brittle from age and heat. There are a few tests in the fsm you can run to test continuity/voltages, etc.

Matthew

I do have an adapter and non-stock PROM in the ECM but I haven't touched it in years. I suppose it could have worked loose. I'm going to go over the FSM chart dealing with no SES light and see where that leads. I'm hoping for just a blown bulb but who knows - this car is cursed.

The distributor is a new reman part and the coil is new as well. It's a small cap variety with EFI Connection wiring - never tested unfortunately. I'm going to go back over those wires and see if something is amiss there as well.

Thanks!

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Ok. If it runs on it's own with EST removed and dies as soon as you reconnect there is a timing issue involved. I had a very similar problem that drove me crazy. Is this an old balancer? Check your balancer for outer ring slippage. In all likely hood you are setting timing and TDC position using a balancer timing mark that has slipped and is no longer where it's supposed to be and out of sync with the motor.

Use something to set the #1 piston to true physical TDC on the compression stroke without using the timing marks on the balancer this time. Once you have #1 at true physical TDC on the compression stroke see where the balancer mark is lining up at. If the balancer is good and has no slippage it should be pointing right on the deep notch (Zero) of the timing tab. If it's not pointing there your balancer timing mark is slipped and that's the source of your timing problem. Paint your own new timing mark and set timing to that one and see how the car runs now.

A likely scenario if the balancer is old is that your balancer has slipped more out of place since the last time you had used it to set timing properly before the engine teardown. It happened to me and drove me F'n crazy till I figured that was the problem. The big clue for me was that with the EST unplugged the car ran better, and worse as soon as I reconnected it, sometimes even stalling.

So double check your balancer for slippage and verify that your balancer timing mark is still in sync with the motor and has not moved.

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Great advice that I totally forgot to mention. I had a timing issue a couple years ago and this is what was the cause on my OEM 20 year old stock harmonic balancer:



You can see how the rubber ring deteriorated and allowed the outer ring (with timing mark) to slip around. I replaced it with a piece from rock auto for around $35 I think.

Matthew