Well for the past forever i have been working on my 350 swap.

Here's my problem. I get spark, and i get fuel. I test spark by well, grounded the plug and looking for a sopark, i see a nice blue spark. Very good.

I check for fuel at the same time as spark, if the plug is wet, then it has fuel.

I think timing is off, but i am unsure exactly. I bring my timing mark to zero for TDC. and i set the pointer to/around #1 ignition point. And try to start, when it refuses to start, i have my hand on the dizzy and start twisting it in a counter clockwise direction and if nothing happens, counter clockwise direction to see if anything new will occur.

My beef is, that i dont seem to be gettign much combustion at all. I've heard cars that are way out of timing and every once in a while it will make a noise. but mine seems to refuse todo this.

I have one question tho. during assembly i used oil to lube the bore walls and stop them from rusting. When i installed the heads. I dont remember exactly removing all the oil from the bored. I got most but not all. will this stop the engine from starting? or just prevent it from full combustion?

good thing tho is, while starting my oil pressure is 50PSI on my mechanical guage. That is one heck of a good oil pressure. And the engine didn't even start yet.


Help me please.

 

get a spark tester to check spark with. i'd recheck the location of the rotor and TDC of #1

 

I have a spark tester as well as a timing light.

For some reason i think i have the car 180 out and cant figure out why.

I put #1 at TDC and point #1 ignition to #1 terminal.

But i catn remmeber, there was some kind of cnfusing part i read back in the day. That it was the oposite, when #7(which ever picton is at TDC at the same time as #1) was at TDC #1 ignites or the other way around. Because the cam turns half as fast as the crank so there are Two TDC's right?

Which one do i want?

 

#1 and #6 are the two at TDC at the same time.

Anyway, you want #1 at TDC(end of compression stroke/both valves closed) when you point the dist rotor to #1 terminal. Pull the distributor and spin it 180, if it works, you were 180 out, if not, start checking other things(valve lash, etc.)

 

ok i did that and whammo, still ntohing, but, i sprayed starting fluid ion there and she started, well atleast for a second. Which is great, my heart like stopped for a second thats so great.

So now i need to go buy a fuel guage for my car, was working in the dark with my new adjustable fuel opresure guage.

However i know the injectors are praying. Simply becuase after spraying carb cleaner in and starting i could hit the gas and she would opick up rpm, but suddenly stop. And stop so quickly the belts sqeaked. Was kinda weird.

My guess would be timing spark coming too far ahead of TDC and making it stop dead in its tracks. But my battery died and my charger doesn't charge quick enopugh for me, so i'll just goto work and come back to it tomorow and get her running.

Which motion on the distibutior is avance and whihc is retard? clockwise = advance or retard?

Which is safer for gettign itt o idle so i can check timing with my light? Advance or retard? I need to get her idling to check spark. so...



Thanks for all the help so far.

 

If this is in the car and the car started with starting fluid but stopped immediately, I would suggest check the fuel pump. It sounds like you might have a problem there.

 

the fuel pump works great, i can hear it prime, and run. The oil pressure switch works great well simply becuase it turns the fuel pump on when i was priming the oil system.

I need to recheck to make sure all the fuel injectors are firing. And everything in between.

 

Have you checked the fuel pressure regulator?

 

its a brand new AFPR. I a,m starting to think i should check it. Becuase it sounds as if its bleeding off way too much. When i was priming the oil system,, the pump turned on, but the AFPR made a squirting noise constantly. Before my standard regulator never made a sound. Especially like this.

the screw on the top of the regulator, how far does it need to go in for a point to start off with for fuel?

I'd seriously hate to pull the upper plenum again to take off the AFPR and see whats going on. But its not out of the question.


How would you check to make sure all injectors are firing? I am gonna get my mechanic's stethescope and hear for clicks while cranking, if that shows they are working then it would have to be fuel pressure related.

I need to borrow a fuel pressure tester. Because i dont want to buy one when i am ordering a permanently mounted gauge very soon.


So what am i looking for to test pressure the "poor man way" ?

 

borrow a fuel pressure gauge. There's no way to know how high (or low) the fuel pressure is without one.....and knowing what it is at or setting it to a know pressure may solve your problem.

 

ok, that may work, i was told by some guy to put my old fuel pressure regualtor on, just to get the engine to start and then go from there.

Would this work for a temporary stand point?

 

yes

 

so i guess i know what i'll be doing tomorow to take fuel pressure out of the equasion... hehe.

after this, my fuel pressure will go back to stock correct?



hopefully this will work, i would hate to have todo a much more exhaustive search into fuel delivery problems.

 

Assuming your fuel pump is in good working condition, yes. Just because the fuel pump primes and makes noise doesn't mean it is working properly. You NEED a fuel pressure guage.

As a side note, make sure that "permanently mounted FP guage" is mounted outside your car. Mounting them inside isn't street/track-legal and is a safety hazard. Mine stays under my hood right now until I get my cowl hood.

 

the fuel pump is reasonably new, and and worked great when the car was last run. Fuel pump is on the bottom of my problem list. My step-dad said he didn't get a cheap replacement, the pump alone cost $400.... so i'm sure its good.

 

I won't even get into the possible problems that your fuel pump could be having at the moment, but Lo-Tec is right about the fuel pressure tester. If the original regulator gets the car running, which I hope it does, you'll need the gauge to set the A.F.P.R. when you put it back on. For the time being though, change the regulator and see if that does indeed fix the problem. Keep us posted and we'll keep our fingers crossed.

 

heres a quick update, went out and tested pressure the poor man's way. and had my lil bro prime the pump via the diagnostic port, and i felt pressure on the rubber hose inside the engine bay, once he let off all pressure stopped imediately.

This tells me i have a faulty AFPR or something else.

But this still rises the question, whats causingf it to not start at all. I was getting fuel pressure while it was priming, but it wouldn't even try to start.

Afterwards, i looked at the easy plugs to get to and they were all wet, telling me fuel is getting down in there. Yet i have spark as well. And the engine runs off of starting fluid. If i know anything, that is, i should be hearing feeling something coming from the engine even with a faulty FPR thats leaking down most of the fuel.


I think there may be an electronic gremlin somewhere.

 

well, in my quest to find pure stupidity, i think i succeded.

The 4 pin connector for the distributor, i left unconnected. Not only that i had cut the 4 wires on the ECM side before hand. I'm such a dumb but.

This explains a lot now. The pickup module wasn't sending the ecm anything. And therefore, there would of been no fuel being sent into the engine. I think. Anyways, after i repair this baby, i hope she starts without starting fluid because repalcing the fuel pressure regualtopr didn't do anything. However, she does keep pressure now.

 

she started!!!!!!!!


and woah is she a loud thing...

she idles great automatically at 1100rpm, which would be expected with 24# injectors on a stock 305 chip.

But she idles great. I ned to connect my y-pipe to my headers next so i can set valve lash and time her correctly. But man does she sound nice.

And both my oil pressure guages max out while she is running. The stock electrocal one is past 60psi, and my mechanical guage that maxes out at 60 psi is hitting the stiop needle as well. This is great. Thanks for all your help guys. I really appreciate it. Now i need to let her cool off, and finish her up.

 

don't sell yourself short

I'm sure everybody on here has there own "pure stupidity" story.

 

Yep, in fact, I know a guy that ran an entire day at the track with his EST wire disconnected and was wondering why he was so disappointed with his times. Was also wondering why his car wasn't running right for a couple weeks afterwards until his girlfriend accidentally kicked the kick panel and he noticed the EST wire disconnected (wire is inside car with painless harness)

 

lol, thats funny.

the fact i kept wondering why she didn't work is what gets me, heck even changed FPR's becyuase i coul;dn't get it started, and still neglected to look and make sure it was connected.

but thanks for all the help guys.

 

And Lo-tec is right about everybody havin' a dumbass story,lol. Good to know you got it fixed though.

 

yes she idles nicely at 1100rpm. Which isn't the best but i like it there sorta. In drive she should idle perfectly normal.

but she has a very nice lope to her. And i love that. Its a small cam, as far as aftermarket goes, but she idles very nice. Very noticable thatn there is a cam in the engine.

With my custom exhaust shes a pretty loud woman.

At this point i still need to hook up the flexplate, finish installing my new modified valve body, and seal it up, add tranny fluid and a driveshaft and i should be good to go.

I did a stock base timing of 6* advance.


shes a beast i tell ya.