Ok, built the engine blah blah great and all. (this is the DD 355 setup). Give it a bit of starter fluid to help give it a kick. So my buddy turns it over and it sputters. It slowly cranks. Like its not turning fast enough to turn over.

I put #1 cylinder at TDC, aligned the dizzy to the #1 plug. All the wiring is good. Is this just a case of the battery not carrying enough charge. I might have bad gas . Could that have an effect on starting? YOu can watch the starter fluid spit up through the carb.

 

sounds like you're too advanced. try retarding the timing a bit.

 

i twisted the dizzy in every direction possible and it never caught. There were points where it would NEARLY catch....

 

Sounds like it's 180° out.

Disconnect the 12V from the dist; remove the #1 spark plug; stick your finger over the #1 plug hole; have somebody bump the engine over in little bumps until you feel compression; continue to bump the engine until the timing mark on the balancer just reaches the beginning of the tab on the timing cover. That's #1 firing. Take the dist cap off and see where the rotor is pointing.

 

Are you certain about the valve timing?

 

I will double check it.