89 240SX KA24E Rough Starting

[JT 240SX]

After rebuilding this engine and getting it back in the car it will only start sometimes and when it does the distributor needs to be advanced all the way and than the car has a terrible idle, just jumps everywhere. I need help, we have tried repositioning the distributor ahead a tooth, behind a tooth and nothing works. No matter what if we get it started it has that really rough idle and that is if you can get it to idle, most the time it won't stay running by itself. Any suggestions on what to look at?

[NISTECH]

Pull your valve cover offand reset your engine to TDC #1. Make sure your timing mark on your cam is at TDC for #1 cyl. If that is ok look at your rotor in your distributor, it should be pointing dead at #1 plug wire. If its not you need to reclock the dist, on the E you will need to pull the oil pump shaft out and reclock it as well to get that setting.

[JT 240SX]

We have verified that the cam and crank gears are both at TDC, the chain was put on with all marks lined up also. If we were able to get it started we would have to advance all the way to get it running and than it had the rough idle. We also ran a compression check and came up with 80psi on each cylinder. What do you think. The head has had a valve job also. This car really has me stumped.

[NISTECH]

Your compression readings, along with the turning of the distributor points at the cam being out of time. There are 3 marks on the cam gear. With that said did you choose the correct mark when you installed the chain?

[JT 240SX]

We installed both the cam and crank gears keyways in the 12:00 position, thus making the mark on the cam gear around 3:00 and the mark on the crank gear around 5:00. From the book we have they appear to be right. On both of the gears there was one mark, are there others too? With the cam gear on this way, which is the way we got it back from the machine shop is it possible it was put together wrong? When the cam gear is positioned right should all the no. 1 valves appear to be in a neutral position?

[Touchdown038]

Nistech what do you mean by there is 3 marks on the cam gear? When I did it I only remembered the gear going on one way (with the keyway) and one dot at 3 o'clock.

JT, as long as the marks were lined up right, the chain is installed correctly. You can't just pull the distributor and "advance it a tooth" since it only goes in one way due to the half moon mating patterns.

My guess is you are going to have to put the engine at TDC, pull the oil pump and realign the shaft (there are markings on both the shaft and the pump), reinstall the pump and install the distributor accordingly.

My engine was doing this same thing after the rebuild, and pulling the pump and realigning the shaft fixed the problem for me.

[NISTECH]

You are absolutly correct there is only one DOT. There are 2 other marks that are not dots but hash marks. They tend to get confused for the dot.