Did a head gasket replacement job, changed all upper gaskets, and put all wiring back in pace along with vacuum hoses, marked distrubutor and it's still giving me a pain and im not sure if the car's on TDC because ya turn it and its points at #1 terminal and turn it 360 and its pointing at #4 terminal, so...my marks mean crap, i turned the crankshaft untill i felt force b4 the timing mark then placed the distributor in and when i tighten it the rotor moves good centimeter and lines up with my white mark.

but i checked for spark and im getting spark, getting fuel..

idk what went wrong?

compressions also oddly low, 70...that's horrible i torqued everything to specs, think it could be my valve lash adjustment?

 

Did you torque down the head bolts to pounds, or inches? Back out the valves a tad, and leave them a little loose to be sure, then re-tighten once the engine is running again....

 

yes, 70 ft. pds.

i adjusted the valves 1 1/2 turns i guess that could cause my problem anyone know whats the correct turn lenght?

 

Back them off first until your able to slightly wiggle the rockers with your fingers, then try starting the engine again to be sure that that (over-tightening) was the problem first....

 

thanks for responding i will do that tomm morning, but what else would ya think would cause such a problem?

New head gaskets, torqued to 70 foot pounds, new valve stem seals, and all the valve were flush with the seats.

i got around 70 PSI in cylinder #1, which means it's going somewhere, the car started b4 the head job and had good compression, so either my valves are open or something else?

 

back off all the valves, make sure the lifter is on the base circle of the cam,slowly tighten down that cyl rocker while spinning the pushrod in ur fingers.soon as u feel drag on the push rod stop tightning the rocker arm. from this point u put 1/2 turn on the rocker nut and stop

 

how can i do a valve lash adjustment with a compression gauge? do i pull the ecm/fuel fuse and hook the alternator back up and crank the engine?

 

Dont use a compression gauge to set your valves. Pull your valve covers, which i'll assume youll be doing anyway. Watch the valve movement on cylinder #1. When they both stop moving, watch your harmonic balancer. Watch the timing slot, and align it with 0 degrees on the timing tab. Poke a piece of wire through the spark plug hole to confirm that your at TDC. Now set your adjustment at 3/4 turn from zero lash. You only use 1 1/2 turns on new lifters I believe. Now I'm not sure what other valves you can adjust at this time, but you can adjust a few intakes and exhausts. Look it up in a book to be sure. Then turn motor 360 degrees and there should be some more valves you can set. Again, I'm not sure I didn't memorize which ones, I had a sheet in front of me. I did it in two crankshaft rotations, which took 5-10 minutes max. Make sure you set your distributor correctly also, at TDC on cylinder #1 compression and run wires accordingly. You know you have spark and fuel, so it seems like either: 1 your valves are adjusted too tightly giving you poor compression or 2 your spark timing is off. Why did you change head gaskets anyway? What was your compression that caused you to want to change them? 70psi of compression isnt good at all. If it wasn't that low before it got taken apart then its something that wasnt done correctly.

P.S. Head job sounds like something bought from a corner skank

 

lol on the P.S. i changed the Head gaskets because i had an intake gasket leak, so i said eh, got everything else off, it also has alot miles on the engine so i just grabbed a head gasket set, and cleaned/decarbonized the heads and valves, re-installed all the valves and rockers in original positions, position the head gaskets # side up 1 being passenger side 2 being driver side, then torque to 70 ft pounds, re-installed all my wiring and parts in original locations, and my rotor is pointing exactly were my first white mark is located (the two marks ya make when u remove the dizzy) i adjusted my valves 1 1/2 turns and it was pretty tight...

so i guess that's causing my weak compression.

thats my whole story =)

 

umm 70 ft pounds? its 41ft lbs first pass then an additional 90 degrees

did u use new head bolts,they are stretch to yeild bolts ur suppopsed to not reuse them though some ppl have done so without issues

 

40 is for the 3.1, and 1990 and later v6's

70 is for 1989 and earlier probably due to cast iron heads.

no i bought new sets, also tapped all the bolt holes b4 re-installing heads.

I believe it's because i used the rotate the pushrod method which isn't much reliable and on top of that did a 1 1/2 turn which probably overtightened the valve lash and caused my valves to peek open thus leaking compression, idk i just wanted opnions because if my valve lash was off wouldn't i get zero for compression? i got 70 PSI on #1

 

Did you check the rest of the cylinders?

 

got her running it was the lash, it will crank crank crank then finally run what could cause that timing? or could it be a fuel problem it'll try harder when i WOT it, any suggestions? i believe it's either the timing or the lash isn't 100% correct.

 

unplug the est wire and dbl check the timming,also u could have had air in the lines/fuel rail does it still crank forever before it fires now that u got it running?

 

First time I ever pulled a distributor I had a similar problem. I had it too far advanced. Try retarding it and keep the est connnector disconnected, and check with a timing light. It should run better as you get closer to correct timing.

 

yeah it takes forever to fire i'll try the timing.