I let my cousin drive my car and the radiator plastic radiator disentegrated and started leaking. My cousin is school smart but lacks common sense. he'll mess up an oil change. So he just drove it and then pulled over when it heated up and kept driving it. i didn't know of this till after the fact. the engine blew a head gasket so i decided time to upgrade. i bought a lt4 hotcam kit (for california emissions reasons) long tube headers i know someone that'll look pass that, high flow cats, e. waterpump, cloyes true roller timing chain, ovc wires, madz28 tuning, i did a lot now after putting it all together it won't start. I messed up i didn't grind the back down from the timing chain cover cause someone said it wasn't needed but now the engine won't turn but a little. the starter is good. it sounds like the starter isn't turning the engine, then it backfires. Any ideas. first time i did head gaskets and a cam install. i followed shoebox.

 

Is it backfiring through the intake or the exhaust? It could be the rockers, the timing chain off a tooth.

 

check to make sure all the plug wires are connected to the opti properly. When I swapped in my cam it started for a bout 30 seconds then died and wouldn't do anything but backfire. Turned out that I had most of the plug wires mismatched.

 

Will the engine turn over or not? If not check for a starter problem or the interference you mentioned. If it is turning over but not firing make sure all the connections on the wiring harness are hooked up. The engine only needs fuel, air, and spark to show some life so start with the basics:

Ignition- wires run/connected properly, pull a plug and check for spark, timing
Fuel- basically, pull a plug after you turn it over and smell for gas

 

before we couldnt turn the engine with a ratched wethough it was the interference with the chain and cover so we proceeded to take stuff apart. well it seems it wasn't the interference we pulled the timing cover and it was not touching. my dad had installed the roller rockers he said when he loosened them up the engine turned with with a ratchet so that may be the problem. i know he followed chiltons directions it sounded ok but the thing i didn't think was right chilton wanted each rocker to be tightened till the push rod wouldn't turn by hand then a full turn with a ratchet. i remember people saying something about a 1/4 turn. anyway i didn't tell him anything he's stubborn and would of been pissed. how do u adjust the valve train.

 

we went to autozone and had the starter checked it was fine when we hit the ignition the starter would spin but not turn the engine but a little i mean 1 turn. then it would back fire im not sure from where. i know it smelled like something burned. there was smoke coming out the open headers. but it smelled in the engine compartment too. (we didn't want to take it to the exhaust shop till we had the thing running.)