Like the title says. The truck will not start, it cranks fine but while cranking sometimes it will spray gas out the top of the carburetor or backfire through the exhaust. Could the timing be the issue? I got it to top dead center, I didn’t set it 12 btdc. Could this be part of the issue? Possible sticking valve? Thank you for anyhelp provided.
find compression stroke number 1 piston. bring the damper groove to the 12 before or TDC… which ever…
you want to make sure you are NOT on the number 6 compression stroke…
use a LONG screwdriver to position the oil pump drive shaft groove if standing in front of the engine either in the 9 and 3 position or 10 and 4 Position
turn the distributor shaft till the tip of the distributor rotor is centered over the middle of the HEI module… the distributor should drop in like this and fall all the way in without being held up on the oil pump shaft…
with the damper set to 8 or 12 before… you can turn the distributor housing till the Pickup coil and reluctor poles line up perfectly… this is dead stick timing an engine… ><
please when setting the crank to 12 before or TDC… look at the 3 bolts that hold the pulley to the damper… one of the 3 bolts should be 45 degrees to the right of center… there are 3 different timing mark positions on chevy balancers… you could have a 12 o clock timing groove… a 2 o clock or a 2:30 position. but the keyway and the 3 bolts are always in the same position in relation to the crank…
HUGE HINT… preset the crank before taking the distributor out of a running engine by turning the crank till the rotor is pointing to the number 1 cap position… slowly turn the crank to line up the reluctor and pickup coil poles perfectly… >< look at the damper and timing pointer… this allows you to get the distributor out and back in to the exact same place…
20 years ago… a customer came in with a TPI corvette C4 with a bad pickup coil… the magnet was broken… i prepositioned the engine as described… so i knew exactly where the distributor needed to be set. the customer was sitting behind me watching that i did not mess with anything else… i took the distributor out… knocked the gear off. replaced the pickup coil. reassembled. set the dead stick timing as above… locked the distributor clamp down tight. installed the cap and wires, reach thru the window and turned the key and the engine started … the corvette owner jumped up… how did you do that… i have been doing cars for over 30 years … i have never seen anybody start and engine without needing to turn the distributor to get the timing… i picked up my timing light. jumped the A and B terminal and showed him the timing was perfect…
i then said… why do you think the boss hired me and pays me the big money…
I will give that a go, though I do have to engine close to starting now. I will copy the other comment I made about what its doing now.
I got her switched, no start yet but she putters and dies. It tries to start but when it does “thump” it sounds wet and slow might be rich? Its a new carburetor haven’t adjusted much on it. Just the mixture screws all the way in and out a few turns.