El Camino project car

[280Z Turbo]

Maybe a mouse climbed down your carburetor and ate your pistons.

[280Z Turbo]

Have you put a timing light on it? Are the plugs wet?

[hotrodalex]

Timing light while cranking is kinda useless. The three spark plugs I've pulled seem fine.

[280Z Turbo]

Are they dry?

[Secret Chimp]

This is dumb but what is your choke set up for? Have you tried setting it tighter?

[hotrodalex]

Choke has been in all possible positions. Closed, half closed, open.

[hotrodalex]

I'll pull all the spark plugs and clean them off just for fun

[Secret Chimp]

I dunno how you do your wires, but have you double checked the firing order? If you go by last position maybe somebody popped your hood and goofed the wires around because they suck...? (who has a better idea :P)

[hotrodalex]

Yeah I checked that

[280Z Turbo]

I dunno how you do your wires, but have you double checked the firing order? If you go by last position maybe somebody popped your hood and goofed the wires around because they suck...? (who has a better idea :P)

I don't know about you, but I feel like I could get this engine running in 5 minutes if I was there in person.

Internet armchair quarterback

[Secret Chimp]

jeez what's left...

[hotrodalex]

Plugs might have a bit of gas on them, but they're not oil-wet.

[hotrodalex]

I don't know about you, but I feel like I could get this engine running in 5 minutes if I was there in person.

I will give you one million Schrute Bucks if you can do that for me.

[280Z Turbo]

Maybe a mouse gnawed through your timing chain.

[Secret Chimp]

Do any of the plugs stay wet after cranking?

[hotrodalex]

[hotrodalex]

If new cap/rotor/coil doesn't do it, I'm swapping in a 13b turbo.

[Eye of the Tiger]

Cmon man, these are the easier engines to work on ever. What are you missing?

[hotrodalex]

Cmon man, these are the easier engines to work on ever. What are you missing?

Ah crap the passenger side head was stolen.

[280Z Turbo]

Ah crap the passenger side head was stolen.

That doesn't matter

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=871532706212945&id=139271699439053

[Eye of the Tiger]

Ah crap the passenger side head was stolen.

Auto Zone has those in stock.

[Secret Chimp]

Uhh.... reluctor gap!

The hold-down isn't tight and the drive gear twisted it out of time when you cranked it!

A Smurf disconnects a ground wire when you hold the key!

[280Z Turbo]

Join the Quadrajunk club. Throw away your Holley or Carter.

[hotrodalex]

Carb isn't the problem.

[280Z Turbo]

Well, then you've got an ignition problem there, bub.

[hotrodalex]

Cap and rotor might be here today.

[GoCougs]

Do you have HEI? The HEI module ("4-pin module") is notorious for being hard to troubleshoot (other than swapping in a new one).

[GoCougs]

Replacing parts is a tough way to troubleshoot. You've confirmed you have spark but are you getting spark at the right time? Check for spark at the correct point in the cycle for a few different cylinders. If it's okay for a couple of cylinders it means the distributor is both rotating correctly and generating spark. If it's not okay check the distributor gear.

[hotrodalex]

I found top dead center and the rotor is at the right position. (Actually I found 12* before TDC which is where my timing is supposed to be set)

I also looked at the rotor at TDC for the exhaust stroke and the rotor was 180* from firing cyl 1.

Considering it's a new engine (no more than 7000 miles on it), I doubt that problem is with parts that came new with the engine. The distributor was from the previous engine, so that's a good place to look.

[Secret Chimp]

280Z, thanks again for selling me that MSD out of the CRX a few years ago...