okay so for the last year i've been building my 350 from the bottom up.

this build included a .060 over eagle rotating assembly, lunati cam (lift .468 intake .489 exhaust), edelbrock performer intake, stock 882 heads rebuilt with "z28" springs good to 500 lift. , 72 block, hei ignition, holly 600? carb, new fuel pump etc.

well my problem is i got everything in the car ready to crank and the motor will turn over and turn over but it won't start. every now and then ill here it try but it seems like maybe its not getting enough gas? it back fired through the intake at first and i found out the distributor was 180 backwards so i turned it around and i still cant get it to crank. even spraying starting fluid it still wouldnt crank. im pretty sure i got the timing right? any help would really help asap. im scared to keep cranking on it because of the new cam :/

please help!

 

you sure your cam is installed right on the timing gear?
the only thing that would keep it from fire with the starting fluid is the ignition, timing, or the cam is completely off

 

well when i installed the chain i lined the dot on the crank gear to the dot on the cam gear. sound about right? and i took the valve cover off to watch the valves and when the harmonic balancer hit 0 number one piston was tdc and the valves were closed. im lost :/

 

Sound like you know what you are doing. Did the back firing go away after you rotated the distributor? Do you for sure have the rotor button and the wires installed correctly in the right firing order?

 

Lets eliminate the fuel concern by filling the floats with gas. Now check your spark. You will have fuel and spark at this point; it leaves us with bad compression or your timing is off (from experience when a distributor goes in 180 degrees backwards it will jump a tooth or two when you flip it around).

 

I had the same problems with my fresh 350 build. My problem ended up being that the fancy 3 postition timing chain set had a 0 and a O. Well i had the marks lined up but they weren't the right ones. Good luck!