My L98 TPI equipped camaro has good spark, has injector pulse verified with a noid light, has good compression but will not fire. I had it running last week and just wasn't right. I pulled the dist cap and found it was way out on the timing. I corrected the timing and now it will not run at all and it will only occasionally pop out of the intake. Timing mark lines up to zero when #1 cylinder is at TDC. Verified firing order and plug wire connections. Verified rotor position is at #1 when at TDC. Used an HEI spark tester to test for spark and i have good blue spark. what am i missing?
I' m thinking of pulling the driver side valve cover and check again TDC and verify the valve are in the correct position to eliminate of verify a timing chain issue.
Any thoughts? i need this car to be running so i can drive it when its not 150 degrees outside and enjoy it!

 

Does the fuel pump prime for 3 seconds when the key is first put in run? I would look at fuel first, with what you have said. Try start fluid squirt in T/B.

 

Yes I forgot to mention I have 44psi fuel pressure with t he key on. Car backfired through the intake when i sprayed starter fluid in there and turned it over.

 

Since it ran atleast some what before timing was done, Im with you on verifying tdc.

 

If it's backfiring through the intake the timing is way off. Have someone crank it while you turn the distributor in one direction until it starts or you can do it yourself. You will hear the difference in the way the motor spins. If it's slowing down turn it in the other direction.

Also ohm your injectors to ensure you don't have a bad one. They should read around 16 ohms. 10 or less is junk and the ECM will shut down that bank of injectors and the car won't start. If you don't have a multimeter disconnect each injector one at a time and try and start it. When it starts, you've found the bad injector.

 

Sounds like you have the distributor off by 180 degrees. You can be tdc on intake stroke and the exhaust stroke.

 

I will check the TDC again and the injectors when I get a chance. Thanks for the input everyone. Its very helpful to have this forum to lean on when needed.

 

I'd check to see if it's off 180. I've done that before, lol. ....beyond that, did you disconnect the EST (?) when adjusting timing? If not, the computer will just compensate for every physical adjustment you make.

I think it's called the EST. Tan wire, that on my 89 was along the passenger fender.

 

Have you tried setting the timing back to where it was? I would suspect that the timing mark on the crank/balancer is not right. or if you had the wires off you got them one set over.

You verified spark after changing the timing right? It seems alot of people have had pick up coils go bad after working in that area.

 

Another thing I would check is the distributor hold down. I had this happen long ago and found that the hold down bolt was tight but the shiny chrome piece itself was bent being a poorly made bracket. The distributor would start turning out of whack and then no start conditions came back. Ive also had poor ground to the coil cause issues also. Its always the little things that make such big headaches

 

You are exactly right sir. I pulled the driver side valve cover, rotated the engine until both valves for #1 cylinder were closed, verified the timing mark was at or near zero and stuck a small piece of wire in the spark plug hole for #1 to verify the piston was where its supposed to be. I then pulled the dist cap and the rotor was pointing at #6! Pulled it out and restabbed it where it was supposed to be, put it all back together and it fired right up. Runs great! I'm glad I can finally drive it around again

 

Great news

 

Awesome... Yea I learned this the hard way at 17 before the internet and no experts around... I was ready to burn it when I finally figured out what the guy I bought the car from had done (he replaced head gaskets and couldn't get it running). I relashed the valves a dozen times convinced it was wrong.

 

Good news! Yea that’s happened to me enough I’ll try putting plug wires 180 degrees to confirm or pull valve cover as you did. Glad it’s fixed!

 

OP, Glad you fixed it! Now for some terminology............."Cranking" is when the starter motor rotates the engine.................starting is when the engine runs on its own power.