so i had the smart idea of putting in a mild cam,4bl Intake and carb,lifters,push rods, into my "64 impala 283,,so i swapped everything out,,lined up the timing chain gears,rotated the crank to line up marks on gears ,, reassembled everything put in the distributor it turns over and almost runs,,but it will not fire,,checked everything a million times,,the dist is a stock one with pertronics,it looks good,lined the dist up with #1 cylinder,[top dead centre]im getting lots of gas to the carb,it cranks over but will not start??..WTF..wires to the coil are good and correct,the lead from the coil to the dist is contacting,[i have lots of spark] i have removed the dist thinking it was backwards and reinstalled it over and over thinking its in wrong.i tried all i know any thoughts??
What kind of cam? solid lifter or hydraulic? I once bought a rebuilt motor with a new cam in it for cheap because it had the same symptoms as yours..They put in a MT30-30 solid lifter cam with hydraulic lifters.. Took forever to figure that out on a complete almost firing engine..As soon as I changed the cam to a hydraulic cam she fired right up... Jason.
Well it sounds like timing issues as you already know. When I get something like this, I get a knowledgeable buddy to start at step one to check all of the obvious things that I have checked over and over. Don't tell him what you have checked. Get him to assume nothing. It's probably something simple.
Had something similar on my 283 years ago. Turns out the distributor was out 180 degrees. Spun it around and started right up. Remember #1 piston is TDC twice per cycle!
take # 1 plug out, slowly bump it over till it starts to blow your finger off the hole, continue rotating it till it lines up top dead center, then you have firing top dead center, then line up the distributor. if that doesnt work check valve adjustment, theres a sequence for doing that also, its usually in the motors repair manuals. jeff
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