My son bought a 71 chevelle with a 76(we think) camaro 350 in it ..It ran, barely.we rebuilt it with stock drivetrain parts, new chain,set at cam 6 o'clock and crank at 12, a comp 278 cam and stiffer springs . It has a HEI with 1 batt wire, and three from dist to cap...marked #1 wire got taken off before I could mark the cap.. Will turn over, sound odd, but won't fire, getting lots of gas, rechecked tdc@cs, and valve lash, tried for 3 days with varied dist and rotor positions, no luck..have I fried the dist by turning it over with power supplied? are there different #1 positioning for HEI..I can find diagrams with #1 being front right AND left..I'm confused PLease help
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/786843 click the link to see the car

 

You need to put #1 cylinder on the compression stroke and then drop in the distributor. Line the timing mark on the balancer with the tab where it is at approx 15 degrees before top dead center. Line the rotor up so it is pointing at approx a 45 deg angle towards the drivers side cylinder bank. When the distributor seats the rotor should be pointing real close to the #1 cylinder. If it doesn't seat, push down on the body of the distributor while somebody taps the starter until it does. Bump the engine over again until you come up on 15 btdc compression on #1. Turn the distributor housing so that one of the reluctor teeth is directly across from the pickup pole. You may need to remove the rotor to see this. Start running your wires from where the rotor points in firing order. This should get you close enough to start the engine.

An hei needs at least 12v to run. You cannot use the factory points resistance wire for this. You should remove the wire assembly from the fuse block (underhood where the wires come together) and replace the resistance (ballast) wire with a 12 gauge wire to run the hei. A replacement spade terminal for the fuse block is available behind the counter at NAPA. For today you could run a wire from the ignition terminal on the fuse box from inside the car, but go ahead and wire it correctly. You will not need to hook up the wire that comes from the starter solinoid.

Pointing the rotor at he number one cylinder is not required, but it makes tracing the ignition wires easier.

Hope this helps.

 

#1 is in the front right
18436572 is the firing order now if that's right and your cap is like an octagon with the front flat (#1 on the right of this flat) pointed towards the carb... like this and futs with it while it's turning over, and try to get it to run.. check and make sure they are all clamping to the terminals, they should click when they go on.

6 5
3 7
4 2
8 1

_______
| |
| carb |
|_______|


then you have to check your rotor, if it isnt your firing order, your rotor is probably 180* off, check by pulling the valve covers and the cap off, and watch the rockers lift the valves, the rotor should pass the #1 spot on the cap as the compression stroke ends, it should also pass 6, when number one has both intake and exhaust open....

If i'm wrong on that there someone quick correct me, my brain was acting stupid and i had to correct myself once in there

also if it's an old coil, you may want to replace it with a brand new one however the next paragraph will cover that
another thing is check all your coil and all spark plug wires are they all new? used, assembled by you? get a spark tester and make sure they're sparking enough, if not replace the wires, and the coil.

next spark plugs, make sure you didnt foul them. should be tan and dry, not black and soaked (fouled) or white (lean). While you're doing this it's a long shot but check your compression out, it shouldnt be causing it to outright not run, but if it aint your rotor, plug wires, or plugs, options are running thin

moving on, vacuum lines, make sure they're all plugged and vacuum accessories functioning correctly. you said it's getting gas...

check all that and make sure it's right, if it is and you still cant get it to fire, ummyea, we'll think of more stuff

 

thanks for the input 84 firebird...when you say right front is #1 I assume you mean passenger side??I was always sure it was front drivers side until I found conflicting diagrams..Please clarify.To answer your question, plug wires are stout 8mm used wires in fair condition, new plugs..I have a tester, how do I test them? also distributors are not my strong suit..how would I check/replace coil? Already checed and rechecked tdc@cs and valve adjustment til I'm dizzy.I have the dist. BAT lead hooked up direct to the battery...maybe I there is a fried fuseable link in that wire????I better check OHMs If you saw the file box full of crap excess wiring I took out of this car, you would understand why I don't trust the wiring...There should be a special place in hell for guys that would cut and splice in a lamp cord and marrettes(wire nuts ) into the starting circuit to run an alarm... Thanks....will follow your advice and advise

 

thanks Mark...the bat wire is stout, but will test continuity tonight..it runs right to battery for now. Will a coil just up and fail? did I kill it by cranking over with the cap off? how to test coil?...The distributor drops in fine, but will not work in any position...did consider 180 out, but checked all angles from scratch..will redo..will check out that reductor positioning .. Still wondering about conflicting diagrams for #1 dist cap position (front drivers side, or the front passengers side, as per "Mitchells" book.....

 

#1 is driver front plug remove the plug then get someone to bump the
engine over till you get to compression stroke varifie that the timming
tab on the timming cover is at the 0 position on the balancer
reinstall the dis with the rotor pionting at #1 plug
the clock wise install you wires in the firing order you already have
leave the dis loos so you can move it for fine tuning to start
at this point the car should start if when turning it over it starts blowing fuel out the carb or sound like its having a hard time turning over remove the cap and note the position of the rotor. the remove the dis and reinstall with the rotor in 180 from the previous posion and retry and start it
also check and see if you have spark if you still have a problem
message me and i will give you my home number and mabe listen to you engine
turn over mabe give you some suggestions I am a licenced tech

 

#1 on the distributor can be anywhere you want it to be in reality as long as you know which terminal it is thats in conjunction with #1 cylinder at tdc.the front of forward position is used cause its easy to remeber but you could turn the rotor 180 and as long as you moved your wires it would work fine.

 

dont forget to use #1 cylinder.if theres any confusion look at your block from the side at the front of the engine,youll see the first cylinders on each side lok like theyre in line,but there is one which is slighlty forward ,thats #1.also make sure you know the proper cylinder numbering,dont confuse it with fords.also it was mentioned that wire the cap in a clockwise order and not counterclock wise.also you said it was firing but not starting,go easy on moving the dist.dont just turn it a lot ,even an 1/8 of a turn is a whole bunch of degrees.but it will go,theres no reason she wont fire

 

Thanks all for the suggestions so far...got lucky and got it going(sort of) found best position by turning dist. but would not run below about 1500 rpm, died after 1 minute and would not restart....got a spark plug wire tester, very weak spark, and also tried it the old fasioned way, and almost had to turn the lights out to see the spark at the plug....will try to figure out if it could be the coil...tomorrow. .

 

weak coil probably, but it seems these guys got you on the right track

 

sorry for the delay in posts, went back to college and got a little busy (dont worry I do know what I'm talking about, my first rebuild gave me a helluva time firing)

yea i was refferring to looking at it from the front of the car, it's the driver's side front is number one, next order is the spark plug wires,

the tester, that i like best for simple checks looks like a spark plug and you just ground the clamp and connect the wire, if it sparks you're good. if you're looking at an ohm meter, my plug wires are MSD super conductors with 40 ohms/ft of resistance, in stock wires the resistance can be in the deep hundreds per foot, basically, take your ohm meter function on a multimeter and check from end to end, if it reads a reasonable resistance(not over like 5000 or 6000 but stock may be higher :/ i dont care much for stock wires) what you're looking for are breaks or such insane readings of resistance that the meter can't read it etc. another way is to simply ground the thread part of any old spark plug and hook up a wire, turn her over (take care to make sure it can't start ie remove all plugs or wires) if it produces a decent spark you're good.

and moving on coil if in an HEI distributor is under that cap on top, if you have an 'old school' distributor, it looks like a monster magneto er capacitor shaped thing with wires running to the distributor, usually mounts on the valve covers. As far as coils are concerned any water and they short, if you washed it witha the cap off and then tried to start it... (plays 'taps' on a bugle) coils short, wear out etc. weak spark is a sign that your coil needs replacement, and your wires may be super high resistance if you're worried about wires, pop one off of any old car and check your spark, using that wire, see if the spark changes.

Now if when the coil is replaced and the wires still are looking ok, and you're still S.O.L. ... Then that coil aint charging fully, find some wiring diagrams, I noticed you said she's wired straight to the battery? I think it's supposed to be wired to the alternator charge line, the battery itself may not put out enough juice... but I've seen some crazy wiring work so...yea the battery shouldnt be terrible either, just I can't say for certain

below 1500 rpm not running is bad... that almost sounds carburetor to me... or a cam installed at a weird degree...(however cam being installed wrong would be insane for the moment so we go carb route)...

check and make sure her exhaust doesnt smell like gas... i.e. if someone says you smell like gas after messing with it for 10 minutes, you're rich, spark plug electrodes should also be brown, sounds like yours if they werent before are now black and gooey, dripping with gas.

if it is super rich, as i expect, and you're running a holley, power valves can be easy culprits of running rich, but, i dont ever remember hearing about the engine not running because of it... heck i just blew my power valve out about a year ago, she just reaked like gas and fouled plugs like nobody's business. Power valves usually blow from a good backfire(in my case, cold day, and the timing was advanced a bit too far for a dragstrip run, that was embarassing)

which brings me to another point, when you foul a set of plugs they can't be cleaned and survive (in my experience) if they were cleaned and refouled, that motor usually wont run unless you fill all the cylinders with gas at the same time, it thus runs like crap... at any rpm... and when it runs, it stumbles with only a few cylinders firing, the car shakes rattles and rolls, and you can see the life of your motor mounts dissappearing.

so if you havent already, I'd go and buy a new set of spark plugs, whatever the cheapest brand are, as you'll likely foul them again fairly well before getting it tuned in. Then change em out, and even if you're plugs look fine, you cant always see the foul on the plugs. This and a new coil is where my money is sitting, next wires, coil wiring, then timing (too far advanced, but you've played with it too much, for that...) next you're looking at carburetion being totally off the wall, cold weather? try using a hair drier and blow hot air into the intake.... umm spark plug wire connections corroding? loose terminals on the distributor? rotor and cap contacts corroding?, and I'm running low on ideas...

again sorry to not respond in awhile, but I'll be on more now, so give us an update, at the least I'm curious as to what it was