Degreed cam, now car won't start/run

I buttoned up the engine and went to restart it. The car ran for about 30 seconds, and now won't restart. All it does it sit there and crank and sputter at me. Oh, and I get a nice little carb fire once in a while.

I used the timing light to see if there is still spark, and there is. I checked all my other connections. What could it be.

The thirty seconds or so it was running it sounded fine. Then nothing. AARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! This is so frustrating. Help!

Phil

 

Hey Phil,
When you installed the fuel pump did you put the arm in right?I don't have my tank hooked up in my 71 and I just used a hose that I stuck into a gas can to start the motor.The other day I decided to push it out of the garage to clean up and then decided to start the car.It ran for about 30 secs and quit .Thats when I realized that the gas hose in the gas can was not in the can. ou: It sounds like you may not be getting gas.What happens if you pour gas down the carb then try starting it?
Pat:TU:

 

I had a problem like that before. Fortunately, the car was out of gas:grin: . Generally, if a car does not start, it is due to the lack of air, spark, and fuel. You have spark covered so maybe it is one of the other two. Good luck.

 

Just to point out: if he's getting a carb fire every once in a while, he's getting gas

 

did your ignition timing end up getting bumped or slipped back accidentally (retarded) ?

Burbling and never quite catching right is a good sign of that... might try to pre-time it again to be sure?

 

The car is getting fuel, as I can see it. The air cleaner is off and all four squirters on my holley are, well, squirting.

We pulled the #1 spark plug and felt for compression and put it a 0 degrees, so I'm pretty sure the distributor is set right and not 180 off.

I don't know. Maybe I'll try 180-ing it and see what happens.

This is driving me crazy. I do have a MSD 6AL. Do they have any gremlins that could cause this. I checked the rev limiter chip and it's in all the way. Hmmmm.............

 

OK, after I recheck the dist. position, I'll see about getting another coil.

Phil

 

Phil
If you pull the distributor,make sure the gear is still intact and the oil pump shaft spins "free".

 

Also.........For TDC,watch your rockers on #1 cylinder.
Rotate engine...intake valve opens/closes...exhaust opens/closes.......that should be close to 0 degrees on the balancer.(I think that's what I do,need to actually be doing to be sure,but give it a try)

 

Phil,

Stating the obvious here.. you've probably checked this. The 6AL has a white wire that will prevent the car from starting when grounded. That's not flopping around loose is it?

Gary

 

If the car was running it cant be 180 out.

 

Something has happened with your distributor. It may not have been locked down and pushed up and out of position. You may have sheered the gear pin. With your valve cover off watch #1 rockers. When the intake closes your on the base circle of the compression stroke. You should have compression blow out your spark plug hole or use a gauge. Your timing mark should be coming up to zero now. Get as close to TDC as you can bump it. Take your distributor cap off and look at the rotor. It should be pointed at #1 plug wire post.

Dont get to :af: I'm sure you'll find it.

 

Phil,

Before you tear your hair out, chasing down electrical issues or parts failures, just verify the 3 simple things that are required for an engine to run

1. Fuel - seems your pretty sure on this

2. Spark at the right time -- turn the engine over, with your timing light on it, and look at where the spark is occuring.. you need to have the mark line up somwhere on the pointer, or just advanced or retared from it.

3. Air/Combustable mixture -- For that you need to verify that it's not flooded, that you have compression, and that the engine can get air in and out of the cylinders.

A very simple rule applies..

You had a car that ran, then changed something.. it's possible you just had a freak failure, but it's much more likely that you disturbed something during your recent work (like an electrical connection) or that work in and of itself has caused a problem.

You moved the cam.. quite a ways.. you do still have enough piston-valve clearance don't you? Hopefully you did not just wack all 8 intake valves.. but what your discribing fits that senario. A simple compression check, followed by a leakage check, will tell you if that is an issue or not. I don't recall the secifics of your engine, but if it's had the decks and heads milled, and your running a cam over 230* intake duration, and don't have valve reliefs in the pistons, this can be an issue.

That would be the first thing I would do, if everything else checks out.

 

The pistons are TRW dished pistons. The block is zero decked and the heads were decked only to get a flat surface. I had the piston to valve clearance checked and I could have sworn I had like .320 on one and like .305 on the other.

I didn't here any "knocking" when cranking the engine over. I would think I would have heard that.

I'll recheck all the connections for the MSD unit. Maybe one of the connections is now bad.

 

Phil-

maybe I've confused myself reading all the posts on this thread, but-

when you put the distributor back in, I'm not 100% clear on how you did it. Did you note the distributor and rotor's position, remove it, remove the timing cover, degree the cam, re-install the cover, and then put the distributor in the same way it was in before? Because if you did, you're not timed correctly- that was the distributor and rotor positon for #1 before you moved the cam. A trick I use is an old distributor cap with a great big hole where the #1 terminal used to be. I just look in, and check for the rotor position.

Like I said, maybe I've just confused myself reading all this. This problem you describe has happened to me twice- once I had a fuel pump arm fail on a brand new pump, worked for about 2 minutes then broke, and the other time, I was off installing my distributor.

Hope you sort this out soon.

 

OK, OK, sign me up for the HUYA Award ou: (Head Up Your A**)!!

After a good night's sleep, I went out there with a fresh and calm attitude and started all over.

Duh,

1. I was out of gas.

2. I had the distributor in 180 degrees.

After finding all that out, it fired right up. :grin: . Now we'll see what happens on Tuesday at the track. Wish me luck.

Phil

 

good luck!

 

It is amazing what happens after a few hours of break can do for you.Glad to see it is all ok now.Now,you better hit the 11s in the old girl or you will be really PO'd.:laugh: Good luck.
PAT:TU: