Just did a DOHC swap and now car won't fire up.....

[zerepdivad]

Ok so i just did a dohc swap into my sohc originally 90 s13. I changed the harness and ecu etc. And i also changed the lower and upper timing chains and tensioners. I know as far as the chains everything was perfectly aligned with it's corresponding notches and marks on the chains and sprockets. And my problem is that when i try to start it i get fuel and i get spark but it won't ignite! I was able to get it to start a couple of times by just randomly putting in the distributor. But when i actually align it correctly it will not fire up. It's getting plenty of fuel and it's got new plugs wires etc. I'm not sure what i should be looking at here? Is it possible it's getting a spark but it's simply not powerful enough to ignite? or do i most likely need to redo my timing as far as the distributor goes? Another thing i did was i removed the egr system but would doing so cause the car not to fire up? Another odd thing is that when it's cranking i get little puffs of smoke out of each exhaust port as it's turning over in a row....(exhaust manifold off) All sensors are hooked up, and i compression tested the motor and it's got 160+- 5 psi on all 4 cylinders. I'm wondering what the best route to go is?thanks a lot for the time in reading and thanks in advance to those who reply.-dave-

[neverlift]

well I'd start with getting the dizzy aligned properly. When doing the egr ish you blocked off the hole right?have you tried advancing/retarding the dizzy while cranking? plug wires at dizzy in right order and at motor....lol make sur eyou hook the coil to dizzy wire up, or you will just drain your bat and get too much fuel in the cylinders. If you flooded it already, let it air out some then try again. mani of should make no diff as far as firing off the car.

[Brandon93240]

I'll second neverlift. Your timing is off a tooth or so on the dist. Put the engine back to tdc on the number 1 and restab it. Also don't run it long with the manifold off.

[zerepdivad]

Yeah i tried advancing and retarding it on the distributor while cranking and still nothing... i did block off the egr hole and i made sure all wires are in the correct order....... at least according to how my friends running stock as a rock 240 is set up. i guess i'll keep on messing with the distrbutor... Someone suggested there may be an issue with the distributor...... but that didn't make sense to me since i was able to start it up when i placed it in a weird position not even close to how it was supposed to be. but i guess i'll just keep trying if anyone has any other ideas feel free to make suggestions i'm all ears at this point. And the reason i'm running without manifold at the second is just until i get it started and running ok then it's going ka-t. but as far as now everything is stock except minus the egr and it's got no mani/exhaust.thanks again

[Brandon93240]

yeah its off a tooth or so, when you twist the dizzy far one way or another does it run then?

[zerepdivad]

no that's the thing i turn it all one way then all the other and still get nothing....... There's a spot i can put the distributor and it will run but it will run like garbage and barely idles... and backfires and throttle response is awful. And when checked with a timing light it's way off. that's if i can even get it to idle......

[neverlift]

it sounds like your dizzy is off man. I dont know what you want to hear.

[ka24destructor]

it is probly the dizzy i had the same problem and I also thought I had it lined up correctly when in reality we had it at tdc during the wrong part of the cycle of the dist. or something like that. it was a while back so I dont remember exactly the reasoning. the dist. was essentially 180 degrees off somehow or another when we had thought everything was lined up at tdc. also im sure u got the firing order right but check that.

[Brandon93240]

I'm done with this thread, if you don't know what your doing take it somewhere to someone who does is all I can say.

[Soravia]

It's pretty much your distributor timing. I had the same issue when I set it 180 degrees off. I was setting it to exhaust stroke instead of compression stroke and when I finally got it right the distributor was broken from being messed with.

If you need a DOHC gage cluster I have one for $25 + S&H