jv_72_jv

It acts like it is firing on three cylinders. Fires, starter spins, fires, starter spins. Runs for about two seconds. I'm thinking the ignition timing is off, but I have it set with the rotor just before the #1 post on the cap with the #1 cylinder on TDC compression stroke. Wires are hooked correctly, checked the above 3 times. I just read somewhere that the lifters have to "pump" up if the engine has been sitting for a while. Before I attempted to start it I disconnected the power to the coil ( HEI ) and cranked it until It registered oil pressure. After cranking for like 30 seconds it sounded like it fired on all 8, but then the battery died, charged for 15 minutes and tried, did the same thing, Fires, spins, fires, spins. Please tell me why it won't start, because I'm fresh out of patience. Oh almost forgot, it was backfiring through the carb, so I retarded the timing and it stopped, but still wouldn't fire on all eight.

_87GTA_

How is fuel pressure?

Go through your plug wires one more time to ensure you have the correct firing order. It sounds entirely like a timing issue to me. Start from square one, check the firing order, plugs, wires, timing............update the forum.

jv_72_jv

Good, it has a new pump and 5 gal. of 93. The firing order is 1,8,4,3,6,5,7,2 ? Won't be able to update until Monday, because it is at my shop.

_87GTA_

That's the standard firing order, yes. Check this pic, to see if it helps.

ljnowell

Dude, that picture isnt right. #1 should be where #2 is.

jv_72_jv

_87GTA_

Hrmm, I stole it from another forum.........maybe that's why all the impala's have issues, lol.

jv_72_jv

Right now I feel like an idiot, because stupid, drunk trailer-trash can get a P.O.S 305 in their truck to run, but I can get my hand-built 350 which I spent about $4500 to build and many hours double checking every thing before I buttoned it up. Hopefully I can get it to run on Monday. It seems like something really simple thats right in front of my face.

_87GTA_

Haha, don't be too hard on yourself. Take a day off, and get back to the basics.

Check the three things a combustion needs to occur air (is the intake/carb working well), fuel (is fuel pressure good?), and ignition (take all the wires off, and start from square one). If you confirm all those are good to go, it will be time to start looking into other avenues, deeper issues.

Street Lethal

iTrader: (16)

If it really backfired through the carb, then it sounds like the distributor is off 180 degrees, which means you need to do more than just retard the timing, you need to pull out the dizzy, rotate it 180 degrees, then reinstall. Come monday, just to check, pull the number one spark plug out, stick your finger in, and find top dead center by rotating the engine. Once found, pull the cap on the dizzy. I'll bet the rotor is pointing toward number six instead of one....

_87GTA_

astrosurfer

The firing order in the picture is correct.
And my #1 is closer to that than the #2 position.
That achieved 6 degrees BTDC.
Was running fine...then just stopped.
suspect ignition module for me tho.

ljnowell

Yes, the firing order in the picture is correct, but the placement on the cap isnt, which is what was said above.

jamon8

iTrader: (3)

take the valve cover off on the dr side

watch the #1 valve springs for the intake valve to close. bring the timing mark up to 0

take the dissy cap off and make sure the rotor is hitting on #1

if not pull the dissy and redrop

ljnowell

Too much work. Its a lot easier to pull the spark plug than it is take to take off a valve cover.

Stekman

+1. Finger over the spark plug hole never fails to find compression stroke.

astrosurfer

it's a circle in the diagram with no orientation specified.
even if you had the dissy in at 180 degrees off you could still place the wires in the correct order by the position of the rotor. Granted some of the wires would need switched for length issues. Which would in turn tell you that you were doing it wrong.
I say the diagram is still correct since there is no actual cap shape to reference by. Now if there was an actual cap shape then I'd have to agree with you. But there's not.
I just went looked at mines and #1 and #6 run pretty parallel front to back with the pistons/cylinders.
This is correctly timed at 6deg BTDC.
I did take a pic too. for my future reference.
I'll give you 50/50 on it, split decision.
It's a matter of opinion I guess.

ljnowell

The picture shows the distributor cap in the installed position on the car. Just because it isnt the exact shape of the cap doesnt matter. The valve covers dont have bolt holes and the carb is the wrong shape too, but thats the whole point, its a diagram. The placement of the cap picture on the diagram is to show where the wires belong, and it is blatently wrong. Many times on peoples cars they are not lined up perfectly usually from the distributor being slightly off on install. I knew a guy that would install the distributor at TDC 1 and wherever the rotor was at make that position number 1 and go from there. Was he wrong? Well, the engine ran. IMO, he was dead wrong. I work on cars for a living, and they should be assembled to spec and properly, otherwise when the next mechanic to mess with it does he will wonder why the plug wires arent in the right place.

jv_72_jv

Got it satrted last night ! Turns out a ground wire was disconnected. It was getting spark, but it must got the the ignition system. My friend pointed it out, so I connected it and it started right up. It has a little more of a lope than I thought for, but I love it.