Okay guys. I just got my engine and trans back into my 1991 S13 w/ Ka24de. The engine was newly rebuilt the 1st time but the valve clearance was never measured so when I decided to take and look at the head, I noticed some grooves in the cam journals so decided to just get another head and put it on. I got it resurfaced and used the valves from my old head on this one. I just lapped them with new seals and adjusted valve clearances; Got everything back together and now it won't start.
I have an issue with my ignition switch that just revealed itself so I have to jiggle the key a bit to get the car to crank. I for some reason have no door chime, dash lights, no dome light, hazards, etc. But the back light for the clock comes on when key is on. I decided to include that just in case this is relevant to my other issue.
I read the trouble codes on my ECU and I'm getting 11, 21, and 34. I've had code 34 since my car last ran but never looked into the issue. Anyways, I can't get the car started. It cranks but won't even try to start. I have rotor positioned at #1 cylinder when cap is on which is towards front of vehicle. I installed a new cap and rotor onto my distributor before even attempting to crank it as due maintenance. I'm getting fuel as I'm wetting all 4 of my plugs from cranking it so much. I've removed my plugs and tested every wire for spark which I am getting. My FPR shows to be 40psi when cranking.
I had a spare distributor laying around so I swapped my new cap and rotor onto that one and installed it but I'm still having the same issue with the same codes. I have yet to check to see if my injectors are firing properly but I'd assume as I'm folding my plugs at. But I'm not an expert on this so I'm getting a noid light to test them. I tried a spritz of brake cleaner into the intake with throttle open and attempting to crank but nothing happens. I have noticed every once in a while, I'll hear so popping from my air box when cranking. Someone recommended I remove my fuel rail and crank to see injectors firing. I removed the rail and forgot to hook up that ground that on the harness next to injector harness. Not sure if that would have caused my future incident but when I went to crank it, a LOUD pop occurred and it blew the metal JB Welded piece I had on the side of the intake for the butterfly port that I deleted. I'm assuming that was a huge intake backfire. I'm gonna triple check that my timing is on point by removing the valve cover at TDC compression and see if the lobes are pointing the correct direction.
Can anyone help me out here? I'd really appreciate it!

Could be a lot of things, but a giant "wham" like that almost always means the distributor is way out or the firing order is screwed up. Most of the old ones are 1-3-4-2 with CCW rotation. You have to be careful with the timing mark to make sure you're on #1 and not #4 when inserting the dizzy. Try simply flipping the rotor position 180 if you think you might have got it wrong.

VStar650CL wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 26, 2020 8:44 pm

Could be a lot of things, but a giant "wham" like that almost always means the distributor is way out or the firing order is screwed up. Most of the old ones are 1-3-4-2 with CCW rotation. You have to be careful with the timing mark to make sure you're on #1 and not #4 when inserting the dizzy. Try simply flipping the rotor position 180 if you think you might have got it wrong.

I got off work and checked out my timing. With Crank at TDC on compression stroke, my cams were way off. Instead of them facing away, they were facing inward. What's weird is I triple checked the timing before putting everything together so had would it have gotten messed up? I'm thinking valve lash might have caused am issue in it because the cams were hard to turn manually when I got upper timing chain off. I could turn both of them about halfway either way but then they'd almost lock up and I'd have to use force to turn them which I'm not going too. I'm gonna double check valve cleanrace and see what's going on.

If it's out that far and binding when you turn it, you almost certainly have bent valves. The KAT's are interference engines.

VStar650CL wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 27, 2020 5:31 am

If it's out that far and binding when you turn it, you almost certainly have bent valves. The KAT's are interference engines.

If I bent my valves, I shouldn't have compression though. I checked compression and all 4 cylinders are at 120psi and that's low but that could be caused by it being a newly built engine and the rings haven't sat or due to the timing being off.