Well I finally got the 400 in the car and it will not start. Here is the situation.
Motor ran in October before I removed it from the truck. Motor was freshly rebuilt buy the guy I bought it off of. Ran awesome. (It did run quite rich, the carb needed to be jetted down; it backfired).
The motor:
It has a street dominator intake, Edelbrock preformer cam, Holley 750cfm vacc secondary carb. An electric Holley fuel pump provides the fuel.
I pulled the motor and let it sit on the stand in the garage all winter. When spring came, I installed Crane gold roller rockers. I adjusted the valve lash and I feel pretty confident that it is correct. I didn't touch anything else on the motor.
The only other thing that happened was the distributor hit the firewall of the truck when I was pulling the motor. The shaft was not bent but some of the little "nipples" on the cap got bent, but I was able to bend them back. They are a tad bit wiggly now, but they appear to be ok. I am starting to think this could be the problem or maybe the distributor moved when it hit the firewall? We know the #1 cylinder is firing but did not check all of them. It's deffinitly getting gas too.
Here is a video of me trying to start the motor with the Holley carb and open headers. Listen for the "whoop" sound. It shoots flames. I've also tried using starting fluid. It almost sounds like it's only firing on a couple cylindars?
Start up with Holley Carb
Here is another video of me trying to start it. This time I swapped on my Edelbrock 500cfm carb that was on my 305. I installed this because I knew it was tuned right. I figured maybe the Holley was giving it too much fuel? I also put on the Y pipe and short straight pipe. Same thing though; sounds like it's only firing on a couple of cylindars?
Start up with Edelbrock Carb
Tomorrow I am going to put a different cap on the distributor (the one from my 305). If that doesn't work, I will try to fix the timing. Does anyone have a link to a good step by step process? I think there is base, initial and vaccuum?
In a nutshell, I've narrowed it down to this.
**Cap of distributor could be bad. (will replace)
**Carb could have been giving to much fuel, out of tune. (replaced with Edelbrock which is in tune)
**Roller rockers could not be adjusted right, maybe valves aren't opening all the way (rockers deffinitly aren't loose though)
**Timing could be off.
Motor ran in October before I removed it from the truck. Motor was freshly rebuilt buy the guy I bought it off of. Ran awesome. (It did run quite rich, the carb needed to be jetted down; it backfired).
The motor:
It has a street dominator intake, Edelbrock preformer cam, Holley 750cfm vacc secondary carb. An electric Holley fuel pump provides the fuel.
I pulled the motor and let it sit on the stand in the garage all winter. When spring came, I installed Crane gold roller rockers. I adjusted the valve lash and I feel pretty confident that it is correct. I didn't touch anything else on the motor.
The only other thing that happened was the distributor hit the firewall of the truck when I was pulling the motor. The shaft was not bent but some of the little "nipples" on the cap got bent, but I was able to bend them back. They are a tad bit wiggly now, but they appear to be ok. I am starting to think this could be the problem or maybe the distributor moved when it hit the firewall? We know the #1 cylinder is firing but did not check all of them. It's deffinitly getting gas too.
Here is a video of me trying to start the motor with the Holley carb and open headers. Listen for the "whoop" sound. It shoots flames. I've also tried using starting fluid. It almost sounds like it's only firing on a couple cylindars?
Start up with Holley Carb
Here is another video of me trying to start it. This time I swapped on my Edelbrock 500cfm carb that was on my 305. I installed this because I knew it was tuned right. I figured maybe the Holley was giving it too much fuel? I also put on the Y pipe and short straight pipe. Same thing though; sounds like it's only firing on a couple of cylindars?
Start up with Edelbrock Carb
Tomorrow I am going to put a different cap on the distributor (the one from my 305). If that doesn't work, I will try to fix the timing. Does anyone have a link to a good step by step process? I think there is base, initial and vaccuum?
In a nutshell, I've narrowed it down to this.
**Cap of distributor could be bad. (will replace)
**Carb could have been giving to much fuel, out of tune. (replaced with Edelbrock which is in tune)
**Roller rockers could not be adjusted right, maybe valves aren't opening all the way (rockers deffinitly aren't loose though)
**Timing could be off.
Supreme Member
Well if you mashed the cap you should definately replace it...
For the cost of a new cap (couple bucks) why not eliminate it from being the issue, you already know its screwed...
If the rockers are cranked down too far you will loose compression as the valves wont fully seat and leak out cylinder pressure. To eliminate this do a compression test.
Something makes me think that is the problem...
For the cost of a new cap (couple bucks) why not eliminate it from being the issue, you already know its screwed...
If the rockers are cranked down too far you will loose compression as the valves wont fully seat and leak out cylinder pressure. To eliminate this do a compression test.
Something makes me think that is the problem...
Thanks. I will replace the cap and run a compression test.
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Update:
I pulled the distributor and installed the almost new one that was on my 305. I was leary about doing this since I'm not to knowledgable in this area, but I read up on it and everything went right. It fired up right away. No chatter from the rockers either. Thanks to all who read.
-Greg
--------------------------------------------------------
Update:
I pulled the distributor and installed the almost new one that was on my 305. I was leary about doing this since I'm not to knowledgable in this area, but I read up on it and everything went right. It fired up right away. No chatter from the rockers either. Thanks to all who read.
-Greg