Sbc new cam and heads won’t start!

It’s pretty true for most Hamb era gm engines anyway


There’s way funnier shit in this thread for sure though

 

What was the Engine this happened on? just curious. JW

 

There was a guy on another forum who was advised to make sure the rotor pointed to the #1 cylinder distributor cap terminal at TDC.

He took that to mean the rotor tip should point to the #1 cylinder itself, that didn't work out to well till that got straightened out. That pic with the blue line made me think of that.

 

He did make the comment " when it is at #6 fire the rotor was pointing at the driver's seat".

 

I don’t see how it’s confusing if both are done,,, rotor button points to #1 cylinder and #1 plug wire goes there.
And again the rotor can drop in any old place

 

And that’s wrong if rotor points to #1 cylinder

 

Drivers seat of a car in New Zealand would be closer to 180* from #1. JW

 

The Olds in my roadster. Not sure how it ever ran before? Like I said, parked since ‘64 and it was stuck like chuck!

 

Does it have adjustable rockers ? JW

 

Not the #1 terminal on the cap, he had the rotor pointing at the actual piston cylinder.

 

Timing could be close but if marks are off you will need to move the dizzy back and forth while running to see if it smooths out...then verify with true tdc and timing light

 

Looking at the cap and wire routing, it looks close.
Guessing he is at #1 compression.

 

did you ever see that one episode of Gilligan's island where they almost got off the island and Gilligan screwed it up? that's my favorite one!

 

I was waiting for this one, Salty.
You could put the cam at 3 or 9 o'clock LOL .You can put it in a tooth off, which does happen. It might start, if everything else is right. Beyond that, doubtful .

 

I see the problem.......it's the rocker covers.

 

You can, I suppose, but bear in mind , when you tighten the set screw, it picks up the lock. So you might get a number five volume click out of it .after elimination the number 10 . LOL .. Polys are hard enough to do , statically, without "cheating" . By that I mean trying to run the nut down a fuzz without loosening the set screw. Stressing the stud like that is never good.

 

Didn’t I say cylinder

Yes the rotor button points to the # 1 cylinder at TDC of compression stroke and THEN the #plug wire goes there. Look at a FSM

 

Pontiac has #1 rotor locations all over the place

 

I apologize if I'm not very clear. In this instance, he misunderstood what this lining up the rotor business is trying to achieve.

He eyeballed the rotor at TDC to point at the #1 cylinder of the engine itself, which as it happens is nowhere near aligned with the #1 terminal of the distributor cap. I mean, what are the odds? Maybe it would work on some engines but that's not the way to bet.

 

It just takes practice , and it beats the shit out of using a p&g IMO...

 

Slowly ,,,,

The rotor button points to engine block #1 cylinder . THEN you stick #1 plug wire there

That keeps shit simple
It don’t Matter where a number one is you can put it any place you want you can even make it point at number one cylinder or you can make your point at the firewall or straightahead or at the driver seat but what really matters is that you put the number one plug wire whatever the fuck it lands


Couple ways to get it there you may have to turn oil pump shaft to get it to drop where you want

 

Everybody here knows that, but I think you're forgetting that the novice has no clue about any of this. In any case I was just trying to illustrate an amusing story how instructions can be misinterpreted. He was a happy camper when he got everything setup according to Hoyle. The End.

 

OP never said what brand of 30-30 cam he installed. I have a 30-30 cam in my 327 too, except it's an Isky 505t, 30-30 valve adjustment. Valve events are WAAAAAY different than a factory 30-30 Fuelie cam. All that aside, I've never had any luck with the way the OP said that he adjusted the valves, it works for a factory hydraulic cams but a solid lifter needs to be adjusted on the base of the lobe. JMHO.

 

I moved one two teeth, but that's a different story.

 

The overall Original poster seems To have explained the process quite well enough.

And with the crappy information we have so far and no testing and nothing but guessing my best guess is that compression is way down valves are open or not seated at spark plug fire Or his timing marks are off and what he thinks this top dead center is not. Balancer/ timing cover compatibility vs actually matching.

 

I follow the firing order around as I turn the crank. Adjust on TDC compression for each cylinder. It’s the easiest way to ensure there’s no problems plus I like to rotate and feel what’s going on. So what I move the crank 8 times but don’t ever worry about the adjustment because it’s on the base for sure and only do the valves once. That gives me piece of mind .

 

After all these posts it sounds as though @Camp64 has the cam to distributor relationship correct. I think he might need to run the valves again, but this time do them one at a time, bar the engine over 90*, do the next (#8) one and follow the rest of the firing order.
The Chevy .030/.030 cam was always a bit of an odd duck, the published duration numbers looked extreme and that is because of the long clearance ramps it is ground with. It might be the ramps that are causing the valves to be off the seat prematurely causing firing through the carb and the hard to start issue. Trying to set 1,2,5,7 IN and 1,3,4,8 EX with the crank at No. 1 firing may be OK for No. 1 cylinder but the long ramps may be causing some of the other valves to be off the seat a touch.
Keep your distributor where you have it, pull the rocker covers and set the lash cylinder by cylinder and then try to fire it.
@31Vicky with a hemi it appears we are on the same page !

 

That's good advice, I pretty much now tell everyone with engine trouble in their "new" old engine to first verify #1 piston TDC and the "0" mark are aligned on the balancer using a piston stop. It's really common now for balancers to be defective, at least in Fords. Also, a couple plug wires out of firing order is even more common than I thought it already was. Basically, check everything. If something can be installed wrong, somebody 20 or 30 years ago or longer probably did.

 

Apparently not everyone here knows that you can put the rotor #1 position wherever you want,,,Even actually pointing it at engine block #1 cylinder. Im guessing since it’s a hysterical suggestion to some or when it’s stated as such thought to be misinformation that they’ve never seen a FSM or don’t know how to get three things lined up at the same time-TDC, the distributor gear teeth and the oil pump shaft.
I’m not forgetting anything. I’ve responded to the OP earlier, and the rest of my posts in this thread haven’t been to him since - he hasn’t been back.