91 240sx won't start after head swap

[neekap]

I've recently swapped in a 95 s14 head onto my 91 block, but it isn't starting. It cranks fine and sounds like there is some combustion happening but not enough to start up. Exhaust appears to be coming out of the port on the top of the valve cover. The compression was around or above 100 for all the cylinders, and I know thats low but I doubt thats whats stopping it from starting. THere is one electrical connection near the passengers side of the block near the bottem that I can't find where it goes, its two wires (yellow/black and yellow/blue). Also, I can't see where the vaccuum line coming off the top of the egr valve as well as one on the bpt valve are supposed to go, could that be a problem? What else could it be?

[spitz7985]

Are you sure the distributor is in time? When put mine in after my timing chain job, I had plug #1 firing at piston #1's TDC during its exhaust stroke and so I had to take it out and rotate the crank 360 degrees before putting the distributor back in.

[neekap]

Ok, after checking and rechecking and messing with the timing, the car was on the verge of starting. And finally, as the engine seemed to be rumbling to life, it stopped and now the starter just spins very fast and nothing cranks. Also, theres some sick smell thats kind of like gas after cranking it a bit. So now I'm assuming the starter may be shot, so whats the next step?

[neekap]

After replacing the starter, I was able to mess with the timing with the distributor a bit and get the thing to come on a bit. I can get it to roughly start up and if i give it gas it sometimes revs. It sounds really loud and rough and quite a bit of smoke is coming out of the throttle body and the valve on the valve cover gasket. It has come to an idle a few times for about 2-3 seconds but always dies. The compression after starting it up a few times was between 150 and 120 for all the cylinders. It smells pretty gas like as well. Also, the spark plugs smell of gas and are coated black. Is it something with the cam timing or what? The hoses on the egr and bpt valves are still not connected anywhere and there is the one electrical connector as well. What can fix this?

[Altiman94]

check your camshaft timing, how did you putt his back togehter?

[neekap]

basically i put it to tdc and lined up the mark on the chain, the first cam lobes were pointed roughly apart from each other, though i think i do remember the timing chain have a slight amount of slack on one part of it, could it be off a tooth or two?

[s13sr20chris]

that sounds like cam timing to me as well.

[neekap]

today I plan to mess with the cams, but what about those vacuum lines I mentioned and the electrical connection?

[neekap]

ok basically after redoing the timing chain, i got the car to idle fairly smoothly for 10-15 seconds and it seemed to be a simple timing issue. However, today I have discovered the compression to be 50-60 on all of the cylinders and it won't fire at all (how nice). After coming so far and getting so close there is this, so what would be the best bet? The headgasket is new, but I reused the headbolts, which I am assuming caused this problem. Would putting in new headbolts w/o replacing the gasket or taking off the head help at all?

[NISTECH]

If you truly only have 50 to 60 lbs of compression I would guess you have bent valves. Reuseing the old head bolts wont cause that.

[neekap]

damn that sucks, though it seems strange that valves could get bent like that. the compression was reading around 150 and then we were trying to get it to idle, which it was doing, when it died and now its in this state. Everytime we check it its reading very low and I'm not getting any combustion from what I can tell. I'm thinking it may be time for a new KA...