Gotta prob; I got my fresh 355 carbd vortec to fire twice after fighting with the timing. Now I can't get it to fire up any more. I have spark, I have gas 93octane and no air filter. Its killing my battery trying to start it I've tried moving the dizzy a little each way still nothing. Neg terminal gets hot. Please giv some advice.

 

Timing lol.
Pull the distributor out and do it again.

 

Re-charge the battery too.

Also, don't sit there and crank and crank and crank and crank.........

Starters draw a lot of current. That's what's making your battery toasty.

 

will do lol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

take out dizzy bring to tdc check timing tab. (I know for sure that initial crank and cam timing was sitting dot to dot before timing cover was put on) point the oil pump shaft back toward no.5 intake valve. replace the dizzy and mark the no.1 piston and wire the firing order. did I miss anything?

 

Ok got home early wish I could upload video. - went back thru firing order, checking dizzy cap,rotor button,and for fire to no.1 all good except firiing order

I put piece of toilet paper in no.1 hole blew out three times my dad said it doesn't have 3 tdc's so take the last one as tdc I did and rewired put very little gas in carb so I wouldn't flood it and turned the key. It fired up then I adjusted dizzy it fired again a little quicker I did this till I found the best about 4 reps and vroom my dad said get running for a while b4 trying to get timing PERFECT!!!!! Thx thirdgen now its on to the fuel pressure regualtor!

 

Way to go, that is one of the best feelings when you get that new motor running.

 

well it didnt last long. my wife got there and she turned it over and i placed a little gas in and then nothing my dad said i could be accidently flooded it, my spark is not blue its yellow-orange, my dad said maybe the reason it has to be blue (why is it not?) what could cause this? I checked timing and tdc and when the piston is tdc the harmonic balancer is at 4degrees before tdc according to the timing tab. so I don't think the timing chain jumped time. firing order has been checked and double checked.

i don't have the a constant fuel line hooked up yet i'm slowly and carefully using a small squirt bottle to put gas in I don't have my fuel pressure regulator connected yet.

 

Remember that just because your timing tab is on 0 tdc you could still be out 180 degrees.. If you not up on the no# 1 cylinder on compression stroke, your 180 off.. As far as the orange spark.. Could be..

1. weak coil
2. ignition module
3. bad cap or rotor
4. dead battery.

After you get it to run.. Unplug your ALDL plug and set your timing to either 6 or 8 degree's before TDC with it running..

 

wire going to dizzy is thin speaker wire used only as a temporary means of supplying power to the dizzy. now, what i have just learned is that now all wire conduct electricity the same. or in this case provide the same flow of electricity the wire that went to the OEM dizzy was about 8guage a thick wire and i found out that the thin speaker wire might not be allowing the full constant 12v to get to the dizzy. I will be checking on this as soon as I get off work.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_less_v..._length_of_run

and I did triple check the TDC.
how to check the coil
can advance auto check the coil and ign.
battery was fully charged
will try the cap and rotor (i did look but did not see anything out of the ordinary) thx man!

 

Nothing worked!!!!! Will have to buy coil,dizzy cap, rotor change everything and try again

 

180* out it wouldn't start at all. In order for it to have fired your timing has to somewhat be in the ball park. A weak spark has nothing to do with your timing. (Basically your timing just tells your motor at what point in the compression (advance) or exhaust (retard) stroke to fire. You will always see more power with more timing because the earlier in the cylinder's compression stroke that it fires the more pressure it has built up and the more violent the exhaust stroke is.

 

then we're back to weak spark so I will start with dizzy cap, then rotor, then coil, and after that plug wires, and components inside the dizzy. Voltage reg, and pick up, ign. module. might even upgrade battery( current one has about 800cca but after a little turning it gets too weak to turn my car but does just fine for my 87 dodge truck)

someone keeps telling me about computer but when I went to stand alone hei dizzzy the computer has nothing to do with it and VATS was bypassed when I bought the car and ran it for a year before even starting this project.

 

VATS won't send a weak signal... specially if it's an HEI.
Don't know much about the computer end of things but I don't see how it would control an HEI.

 

10-4 I just ordered a coil and ign. module, and 8mm plug wires. Then I have to figure out what parts to order to make my mallory 4309 work with stock tbi fuel lines

 

got my coil, tested old one, old one checked out fine, so did the ign module. will replace anyway but now my kids have lost my keys. is there an easier way to get a key for this car an , 89rs with VATS already bypassed, than getting a new ign. switch and going in the steering wheel?

 

Got the new coil in and wired it up cheked for and got 12.25v at dizzy turned key to chek for spark it sparked 1 time and then clk clk clk. the starter. I chkd connection and found out that little grnd from batt to firewall was loose I tightend. Tried again then clk clk clk I felt groung terminal. Its red hot little , grnd to firewall too, grnd from drivers side rear cyl. Head to rear firewall was red hot. - got a short I think. I don't remember cutting any wires but guess I will have to double check. Does the one for the rear cyl head have to be on the same cyl head as the big thick grnd terminal wire? Oh spark now looks blue but I'm scared of catching fire.

 

I must have a hot touching the firewall and shorting fire back thru the ground wires I guess? Someone help me out its driving me nuts.

 

did some reading. Do you think that if the grounds are making good contact then maybe the big ground from the battery isn't big enuff or is too old to carry the current since the starter is turning a tighter engine. tighter engine=more current . am I right?

 

I did the following to it: Changed the ign. module to a mallory, changed the coil that came with the dizzy to a 50,000v flame thrower, checked the firing order again it was perfect, rotated the dizzy to make sure I was close to TDC , double checked to make sure the starter wires weren't touching and were tight, took off the 4 or 6 gauge (idk) ground wire going from batt to engine put on a 2 gauge ground wire roughed up the surface with a file to ensure good contact. turned key the little ground wires didn't get hot anymore, then I got a funnel and a 2ft pc of rubber hose and ran it to the carb poured in some gas and held the funnel in the air. pumped the gas on the carb twice by hand and had my wife to turn the key. and that monster fired up and ran like a monster CONSISTENTLY!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU ALL TGO A VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO THE GUYS WHO HAVE STUCK WITH ME THE LONGEST AND THE MOST EVEN THOUGH SOME TIMES IT WAS A STUPID QUESTION I APPRECIATE THEM

edwardgp, zraffz, 355sleeper, five7kid, redneckjoe, 91pheonix, z28metalhead, apeiron, 305sbc, ninetyone, torque is good, DrEW, camaronewbie, ASEdoc, these are just some of the people who have made this possible here on TGO. I just want to say thank you!!

 

The sound of victory, way to hang in there.

 

Missed the thread, but times like these make your whole day great. Haha. Nice job.

 

thx everybody! oh and feel free to check out the drama in: engine swap labeled: "need a little help!!!"