After pulling the engine and replacing the oil pan, rear main seal, and head gasket, I finally got the engine installed and together.

Tried to start it and all I got is backfiring from the carb with some flames shooting out. It seems to have gas and spark, as gas is shooting out of the carb and the flames. The carb is an Edelbrock 500.

The head was off when I put in the distributor, so TDC was not hard to find. It has new spark plugs.

The head was disassembled so I could get it surfaced, and I figured the valve adjustment would be close enough until I got it warmed up and did the adjustment. As I was trying to start it, the oil pressure went up to 60.

Any ideas?

Keep in mind there are 2 top dead centres.....1 is the one you want.... the other will cause back firing. Try rolling the motor over 1 full rotation and retiming.

If you are using the same valve clearances as before,,,,and you have milled the head ....you will have the valves set too tight. I always set the valves twice berfore an initial fireup. Better to be loose than tight when starting out.

Yer gettin there!

(is this a free MATS motor?)

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

Sandy in BC,
Does that mean he will have to remove the distributer and reinstall? If on the wrong TDC.

I'm not Sandy, but yes, that's exactly what it means. Find TDC compression. TDC exhaust is the other TDC to which Sandy refers.

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Joshua

That was my plan (according to Sandy's advice), to remove the dist and spin it 180 degrees and reinstall, unless there is some other method I don't know about to retime for the "other" TDC.

Thanks for the info Sandy, I didn't think about the head resurfacing. I will try loosening the valves and the retime when I get home from work today. Hopefully this is the solution.

I'm not sure what you mean. MATS is Vegas? I didn't get it free at Las Vegas if that is what you mean.

. What if you advanced all the plug wires four places clockwise at the distributor cap?

yes you could swap all the wires... but what a PITA, just 180 your dist and go from there. its really common to 180 a dist

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'72 Valiant DD for over a decade-225-Disc brakes, big T-bars, big Sway bars f/r, carter bbd/super six, GM HEI, 2- 12" subs in trunk, 1000w amp...
'77 cherokee cheif widetrack-360-33x12.5 tires-no lift. keeps driveway dry-project/backup DD/mudder

Thanks, you are my hero. I spun the dist 180 and it fired right up. A few timing and valve adjustments and my Dart is on the road again.