Alright so I am having to time my engine from scratch since my 89'Camaro RS came with no distributor. Anyways, we tried and the engine fired for a split second. After wards I left it alone and changed the oil and filter next day. I tried to time it again and turned the engine over by hand. I had to really work it to turn it. Did I bend a valve??

 

How sting are your hands with the plugs installed and the converter moving lmfao

 

If your plugs are in, it's gonna be a little tough. Take out #1 plug, bring up to TDC and continue to time it. Be sure to unplug the EST connector.

You'll know soon enough when you go to start it.

 

Turned just fine before it fired. Even with plugs in. It's manual, was in neutral.

 

Which is the est? The one with less or more wires ?

 

It's not likely that you bent a valve . If this sat for a long time without running I'll bet every bit of oil had drained down and left the cylinders totally dry . Since this engine likely has lots of miles (and wear) on it's pistons & cylinders it's likely that the clearances are maybe a touch on the large side (as in , a loose fit) . Now . with this somewhat loose fit between the pistons and cylinders and no oil film between the two , you come along and it's easy to turn by hand cause there is no oil in between the loose parts causing the sealing action that helps keep the compression from leaking down the sides of the pistons past the loose fit . Now you get it to start for a second , long enough for splash lubrication to do it's thing , and the cylinder walls have their proper oil film . Bingo , engine is now harder to turn by hand with the proper oil film holding the compression where it belongs , at the top of the piston ....

You will unplug nothing from the distributor to establish base timing . There is a single wire brown in color with a connector that gets unplugged to put the ECM into base timing mode . You will find this not near the distributor (cause that'd just be TOO flippin easy, Thanks GM) but instead lurking around in the area of the heater/AC box under the hood in around the jumble of wires that live there . When you find and unplug that it will let you set base timing , and throw a code at the same time . You unplug it , start it , set the timing , shut it off , plug it back in , disconnect the battery or pull the ECM fuse for a few minutes to clear the code , then re apply power and it's good to go .

 

Thanks guys !! I am going to do a compression test to make sure all is good. Where should I be on psi per cylinder ?

 

Your question depends on engine internal component variables.
There shouldn't be more than 10-15 psi per cylinders.
140-160psi or so.