we swapped a 2.8 carb'd v6 for a 355 carb'd v8, i have a accel hei distributer and we cant get frickin spark to save our lives. idk if we have wires backwards or what. it turns over, all the electronics work(besides gauges, theyre removed cause im getting a new cluster soon.)

I dont know what to do or what else it could be, it has all new plugs. its just not producing spark. im thinking i could have the distributer cap on wrong? we did the whole Top Dead Center thing and put the plug wires on in the correct order. im just frustrated with the whole thing. the engine was completly functional 2 months ago when the 355 was removed from my donor car

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Put an inductive timing light on any plug wire and crank the engine over. If the timing light flashes then the distributor is working.

 

Might sound dumb... But is the module good? I've had that issue a few times.

 

We tried the light. And i dont see how the module would be bad if we never messed with it and it worked b4. I dont think its wired right...

 

An HEI is pretty simple. All it needs is a good switched power source and a ground to operate. If you have voltage going in and plugs don't fire according to a timing light then you can suspect there's something wrong with the distributor.

Pull the cap off. Is the rotor in place? Wouldn't be the first time that's happened. Does the rotor spin around when the engine is cranking? Is the button in the center of the cap in good condition?

 

what all ground wires do i need? and what do u mean a "good switched power source"???

 

You do not need ground wires, it grounds through the block. The good switched power source is the bat+ wire. It should be an ignition hot switched wire and the easiest one would have been the pink wire that ran to the coil originally.

 

I suggested check the module because I have had that happen. I took the distrib out of a car I had just heard run a few days prior. Put it in my car, no spark. Swapped the module and it fired up... Maybe a 1 in a million fluke but, it happened.

 

That wouldn't have been 1 in a million as I have seen it happen too. SO 2 in a Million. But seriously it can happen. Ignition modules can be seemingly good one moment but bad the next. I can not say it is bad or not but is worth checking if the distributor is getting power.

 

we fixed that problem. it was that little peice of flint or whatever that comes outta the cap and touches the top of the rotor. it was broken. so i have spark now. but it will not turn over the whole way. it acts like either the starter is weak or the timing is off. i know for a fact it is neither of those because before we were getting spark it would turn over fine and the timing wouldnt be off cause we never removed the distributer and the engine ran perfect b4 we removed it from the other car.

Is there a certain way the cap has to be put on? i know the firing order and finding TDC and all tht good stuff but idk what else it could be...

 

See. I already mentioned that but I guess I should have said you need to check it under the coil also.

 

Pull #1 spark plug and crank the engine over until you find #1 TDC on the compression stroke. You can bar the engine over in either direction to get the timing mark lined up as close as possible. The downside to this is you are only at TDC. You need to position the timing pointer so that it's at you base timing. IE 8* BTDC or whatever your base timing is.

Now, take off the distributor cap and look where the rotor is pointing. If you have #1 at TDC on the compression stroke, the rotor should be pointing at the #1 spark plug. If it isn't, pull the distributor and fix that issue before doing anything else. You'll need to turn the oil pump drive as you reposition the shaft to a different position. A long blade flat screwdriver works fine.

Once the rotor is pointing at the #1 plug wire, now you can static time it. With the rotor removed, you can see the magnetic pickup points on the shaft. Since the crankshaft is still sitting on your base timing, rotate the distributor until the pickup points line up and clamp down the distributor. The timing is now close enough that the engine will fire up. Put the rotor and cap back on and make sure the plug wires are in order. Starting at #1, the rotation is clockwise and the order is 18436572. It's very easy to get 5 and 7 mixed up.

The engine should fire up and if you need to break in the cam, you can do it right away without fiddling with the timing. Once you're ready, you can then put a timing light on the engine and fine tune the timing to exactly what your base timing should be.

 

thats good info! but, see why would i have to reset the timing if the distributer was never pulled? only the cap was removed. this isnt a new engine it came out of my dads camaro and it has around 8,000 miles on it

 

You only need to pull the distributor if there's some sort of timing/alignment issue. I've also seen the sheer pin on the gear break. The gear doesn't spin freely but it will turn enough to throw off the timing.

 

You only need constant power, ground, switched power to get it spark. Very simple. I wired an ignition box into and HEI distributor and ran it on an engine stand in under 30 minutes.