Just another thing to look for here,You say it has been setting for 3-4 years,didn't run that whole time and hasn't run yet. You need to pull the valve cover and make sure the valves are all moving up and down,no bent pushrods.Several of us here have picked up slants that have sat for some time and they seemed to draw moisture and the valves freeze from rust/crud.You'll need to pop the cover to check valve lash anyway so thats what I'm thinking.

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83 B-150 slant 6,4 speed. 79 B-300 360 pathfinder 4x4. 74 W-300 318 4x4 git-r-done 80 B-100 sl6,4speed

if i flip the dist back 180 to where the starter seems to have trouble it doesn't backfire at all. i am gonna pull the valve cover and check everything out and then i will go back to the dist moving. i set the valve lash at.010 and .020 right? not .10 and.20? what about since the engine will be cold? should i give it a little more room? i will set them again if i ever get it running while it is hot. i have read on the forum that is better? i am about to head outside to work on her. i will keep you guys up to date.

Yes, flip the rotor so you don't get backfiring.

Setting the valves to .010 and .020 when the motor is cold will end up with a lash that is too tight once the motor warms up, but if you set it while the motor is hot and running you will be fine. It is always better to set the lash while the motor is running and warmed up. Remember, .010 intake and .020 exhaust.

Personally, I would concentrate on getting the motor running and timed correctly first. Pull the valve cover and rotate the crank by hand and watch the movement of the valves on #1 like I described above.

Good luck.

well, i popped the valve cover and man, i have never seen such gunk. there is about 10 lbs of sludge covering everything under the valve cover. anyway, i set the valves to just be just a hair bigger than .010 and.020. i can't really set them hot yet so it is the best i could do. they were all waaaayyy out of adjustment. all of them were very loose. anyway, i discovered that tdc on the blancer is infact 180 out for #1. i set the dist with piston 1 and put everything back together except left the valve cover off and still nothing. i don't have anymore time to work on it today so i should be able to hopefully have it running tomorrow. it did bog the starter down at random this time so i think it is doing better. kinda like it did before when i thought it was 180 out but was infact better. i looked down in the dist hole in the block with a flashlight and i could not see a gear or anything? where the heck is it? i know there is something in there cause it moves the rotor on the dist when i drop it in place. is it that far down that i couldn't see it? i also tested the voltage drop on the wire from the ballast resistor to the coil but i couldn't get a reading on it. i had my ohm meter at 20v but it just said 0.01 the whole time and never changed. i have a better ohm meter i might have to break out tomorrow. anyway, that is all for today. thanks for all the help and i will hopefully have good news tomorrow.

With the valve cover off, you can check the damper's timing mark to TDC compression stroke by aligning the mark to the tab, when both the #1 cylinder valves have lash clearance. (the valves will not have lash clearance at TDC exhaust stroke)

Once at TDC compression stroke, you can stick a probe into the #1 spark plug hole and rotate the engine by hand, a few degrees "back & forth", you should feel little movement as the piston stops at TDC & changes direction. (dwell) This movement ( lack of movement) should line-up with the zero mark on the tab and pulley.

Once you have TDC compression stroke established, move the mark to 10 degrees before TDC and install the distributor so the rotor points to the number 1 plug wire. (4:00 position on the cap) Re check the firing order - plugs wires, 1-5-3-6-2-4 as you go clockwise.

If you have a points distributor, rotate the distributor's housing while watching the points, lock down the dist. right where the points start to open.
With electronic ignition, I insert a spark plug into the #1 plug wire, turn the key "on", ground the plug to the engine and rotate the distributor, you will see a spark as the dist. passes the trigger. Lock the dist down and try to start the engine.
DD

The gear you were looking for is cast into the camshaft. When aligning the dist, remember it turns clockwise so make sure your wires are in order in that direction.

i should have mentioned this earlier but forgot to. i was in a hurry to get ready for work. when i was turning the engine over by hand to adjust the valves i was going to tdc on the compression stroke on #1. once i found tdc i noticed there seemed to be a lot of play in both the balancer and the engine. i could move the balancer back and forth i would say 15-20 degrees before it became difficult to move because of the rotating assembly. is it normal to have play in it like that? also, the crank will move a good bit it seems like while the #1 piston is still at tdc. more than a few degrees at least. this seems like it would make it all the more difficult to find exact tdc. i had a small diameter piece of metal in the spark plug hole but as the piston rose it seemed to get in a bind so i pulled it back out. i am going to assume its because the spark plug hole is at an angle compared to the rising piston? i will definitely try rotating the dist tomorrow. that sounds fairly easy. i will post my progress (or regress) tomorrow. again, thanks for all the help everyone.

well, another day and no running engine. i did make progress today though i think. i discovered that the coil was bad by doing what Doc suggested and rotating the distributor. i got a very weak spark most of the time so i tested it and it failed. got a new one in and everything was at #1 but still nothing so i started moving the dist around and kept cranking. i have finished for the day but i think it is in a good place. i am getting the hanging of the starter and it sounds like it is wanting to start. i mentioned earlier about the smoke out the valve cover. well, with it off it is like there is a small forest fire under all my valves it seems. while i was cranking i could see smoke rising up from the majority of the valves. i am working on it alone so it is kinda hard to see everything through the space between the open hood. after installing the new coil i checked the spark again by turning the dist. it is definitely getting a much better spark now. should i be concerned about all the smoke from the valvetrain? i also have all the vacuum lines unhooked from the carb at the current moment because one goes to the fuel tank, which isn't in the car at the time, and one goes to the vacuum advance but since it doesn't matter while cranking i figured leave it off and the other one is plugged and i am not sure where it is supposed to go anyway. should i plug the other two or would this make a difference?

All vacuum lines coming from the carb should be plugged or hooked up at this point.

When you say a vacuum line goes to the fuel tank, do you mean the charcoal cannister under the hood? I don't think 1970 A-bodies had a charcoal cannister, but I could be wrong. Do you have the fuel line hooked up? If the gas tank is out of the car are you running the fuel supply line into a gas can?

Also, are you making sure that the choke closes and you get at least one shot of gas down the carb before you try starting it? Are you also sure you aren't flooding it when you try and start it?

It is normal to have a little looseness in the crank with a piston at TDC. What you need to watch out for is movement of the crank without movement of the rotor in the distributor. If this happens then you have a stretched timing chain.

ok, i will definintely check for movement or lack there of by the rotor button. my car is from cali and has a vent line that comes from this vapor canister in the trunk by the tank filler tube. i don't have a charcoal canister. yes, the fuel is being sucked into the brand new pump via a gas can and yes the choke is closed. i haven't been pumping it a lot so as not to flood it so i am not 100% sure that i am getting enough fuel every time. but i also have some aether that i have been using so i know it should fire up. i am gonna try to get a compression tester tomorrow sometime and check the compression on all the cylinders. it feels to me like it has really good compression when turning it by hand but i am running out of ideas. i am thinking it either has to be a blown head gasket or timing chain is stretched/skipped a tooth. i have replaced essentially everything pertaining to spark and fuel. i know both are good so i have no idea as to why the thing wont run. anyone live near chattanooga and wanna take a look at her? :shrug:

well, i had to do a few things today but i did get to work on the car for a little bit. i bought a compression tester and here are the sub-par resluts. piston 1 was lowest @ 70psi, 2 @ 75, 3 @ 90, 4 @80, 5 @ 80, and 6 @ 100. i am hoping that this is just from sitting for 3 years and maybe once she fires up and runs things will get better but probably not. i did the test with all the spark plugs removed. i'm not 100% positive that was the right way but that is what my buddy said to do. as i said before, the engine is super sludgy. i have noticed that there is no oil flow to the top of the engine while cranking it. should there be or just once it is running?

Did you squirt any oil into the cylinders before running the test? Did you hold the throttle all the way open during the test?

The greatest concern is not the low numbers, but the vast difference in them. 25 is a lot.

Are the valves correctly adjusted? Are their any stuck valves in all that sludge?

The poor #s could definitely be just from not running. Squirt some lightweight oil down there (Marvel oil, ATF, 5W30) roll the engine over by hand a few to get the oil all over the place. Let it sit a while and try the test again.

If the numbers are pretty much the same, try adding a squirt or two of oil to the lowest cylinder(s) and see if they come up. If they do all come up, then you may have some questionable rings. No biggie. Get her started and see if she is mosquito fogger. Might find that after a few minutes of running it cleans itself up.

Of course, all of this depends on the above parameters of the test being correct AND the valves being correctly adjusted.

good luck.

sb

You probably won't get good oil flow until the motor fires up. Those compression reading are very low, but you might have a stuck ring or six that might free up when the motor runs. Chances are that the motor either needs a ring job or an overbore. You do have compression, so the motor should at least fire up.

i did not squirt oil in the cylinders before hand. i will try that tomorrow and see if the numbers come up. i did have the throttle open along with the choke. i did not get a chance to see if the dist rotor had any slack in it compared to the crank movement. i will also check that tomorrow. it is quite possible that there is not the best seal at the valves because of the sludge but i know they are all moving pretty well when the engine is turning over. just kind of a random question but a friend of mine said that when you install the dist that the engine is to be at tdc on #1 and the dist also but the dist needs to go into the block so that the hole for the hold down bolt is in the center of the adjustment slot. this doesn't seem to matter to me as you should be able to move it enough to where it wouldn't matter. i could be wrong though. there is a capacitor(?) that was hooked up to the + side of the coil that i unhooked yesterday also. again, my friends suggestion. he said since i no longer have points i didn't need it. it seemed to have no negative impact on anything being unhooked but it still didn't start so i am just wondering if i still need it?

The capacitor is for radio noise. No worries.

Buddy of mine had a 66 Dart that hadn't run in a looooong time, and it was a mosquito fogger the first time we started it up. Ran for a while and about the 3rd time he got it all the way warmed up it started to only have little puffs of blue smoke on acceleration. Your mileage may vary, but don't toss the baby out with the bathwater if it has some smoke when you first get it going.

The dizzy on early cars is a PITA, but if you can get it close to TDC you should have enough movement to get it timed in. You do know there is another slot UNDER the dizzy, right?

I try to find the hold down and ring from late models when I go to the JY. I have been known to get one just on GPs when I go. Makes the timing set up infinitely easier....

sb