ok , so i have a 88 T/A 305 tbi and about a month back i started an upper engine rebuild do to a blown head gasket . I replaced my valve seals and cleaned out all the gunk that was in there , little by little i put my engine back together , threw on some new plugg wires and some E3 spark pluggs , new oil filter and of course new oil , and last but not least i re-did my vaccum lines . So , heres my problem , yesterday after a month of my car just sitting there we tried to start it but it just wouldnt start up . we set the distributor rotor so that it would point to piston #1 " like it says in the hayne's manual" , we set the #1 piston at TDC , made syre we were getting spark on all pistons but still no big VR0o0o0o0m from my bird , now my supervisor " who helped me do the rebuild " says it might be the valves , he says the might not be opening up enough " even though we followed haynes instructions and zero lash and 3/4 of a turn etc. , i just want a second opinion on what the problem might be . your help would be greatly appreciated

 

got fuel pressure? what is fuel pressure? got fuel at injectors? nice cone shaped spray from both injectors? what's base timimg set at (with EST unplugged)? On TDC for #1 on compression stroke? checked all plugs for fire? reconnected ground on rear of pass head? Look at it all again with fresh eyes. Check Basics - air, fuel, spark. Let us know what you find.

 

also i tried using the haynes manual to set my valve lash with my engine too. it didnt work. you may have tightened the valves down to much and actually pushed them open. you can back the rocker nuts off and relash the the valves with the engine running. to do this just start the engine and tighten the valves little by little till there is no more ticking you will hear the engine bog down if you tighten too far. once there is no more ticking start at cylider one and loosen one rocker at a time till you start to hear a tick. tighten just till the tick goes away the go 1/4 turn more. and that how i set my valve lash. but as someone told me be prepared to catch some oil and see some smoke. good luck hope you get it running

 

ok you just brought up something that i didnt do , " the grounding on the left head" , my suppervisor put the manifold on and forgot to ground it so he tried to ground it to the manifold " little did he know that the manifold is alluminum and obviously you cant ground to alluminium" so yeah he tried to ground that starp for the left head by bolting it to another ground strap that is by the distributor and bolted them togethr . " i had know idea that this would affect start up . just how important is that ground strap for the left head ?

 

Well if it's the one I'm thinking of, it's pretty important. If I'm not mistaken, it should be grounded to the firewall. And why can't you ground to aluminum? It'll conduct.

 

Aluminum does ground.
Check for continuity from your intake to any chassis ground.

 

Ok this may sound a little silly but... When you say you have the distributor rotor pointing to the #1 piston, is it actually pointing to the front of the engine where #1 is? Or is it pointing to the #1 cylinder terminal on the distributor cap? It needs to point to the distributor cap's #1. If that's in check, have a person help you out for this next try. Have someone try and start the car while the other twists the distributor back and forth till it either fires up or shoots a ball of fire lol

 

yeah , i remeber when taking off the heads there was that wide ground strap that went from the left head to the firewall , so now my left head isnt gounde at all , btw should my est plugg be unplugged when messing with my timing ?

 

yes, EST should be unplugged, and IIRC base timing is 0* BTDC.

 

ok , so pretty much grounding my left head and unpluging my est plugg and messing with the timing , i might start up my car ?

 

Make sure you're on #1 TDC on the compression stroke and not the exhaust stroke.
The car will never start if you're off by 180 degrees.

 

hey guys, ok so i grounded my head , unplugged my EST and set my #1 piston @ tdc and i try to crank it and it wont go , now my carb is flooding and leaking out of the front passenger side right abouve the vaccum port , maybe its my intake valves that arent opening enough or not at all ???? any suggestions ?