ok so some of you know i just got done rebuilding my 350 tpi in my 88 iroc, well initially it fired up awesome, ran good and drove well, i bring it to work the next day and put a timing light on it, the mark is no where to be found, but it ran awesome, so i figured the dist. is off a tooth, well i pulled it out and was moving it around and nothing, so i thought my pickup coil might have went, new dist. again... nothing! not really huffing or popping out of the exhaust, moved it to top dead center on the compression stroke again and still notta, so i said ok ignition coil went, put it in still nothing! the rotor is turning with the cam, cam to crank alignment was dead on, anyone have any ideas? i moved the thing to about 8 different teeth with not much change in detonation, its getting plenty of fuel, i dont get it???

 

is it running? sure you had the light on number 1 plug? was the timing mark lined up when the #1 pistion is at tdc? could be the balancer is failing and letting the outer part to slip on the hub.

 

its a brand new balancer, and yes the mark was lining up when #1 was at tdc, and no it will not even fire

 

may i add initially i did find the timing mark but i had to retard it so much it would barely run

 

what gears and timing chain did you use. is there multiple settings for the key on either?

 

For the record, if the engine is running, there's no such thing as the distributor being "off a tooth", unless it's making the vacuum advance can bind when turning the distributor (but you don't have one anyway). All you had to do was swing the distributor one direction or the other. Too late now, but you should have left the dist. in. You pulled out the distributor, put it back in, and now it doesn't run. You must have dropped it back in out of time, or maybe a hookup wire pulled loose? Check these videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdIGZ...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ixfD...eature=related

 

cant remember the name but its a double roller, and yes, advanced, zero and retard, i put it on the zero, which was the rounded keyway in this case, i unplugged the pump to see if it was flooding out. its at least firing out the exhaust now

 

o boy, i had the wires running counterclockwise, duh, i must have been tired after i pulled it out, but i still have the smae issue, will not line up with a timing light, and it seems to pop out of the exhaust every so often, i can retard it enough to see the mark, but it dies off, it has to be a tooth off, what way would i move it from now? back to the #2 cylinder a tooth?

 

NO, don't go pulling it back out to move it a "tooth", I explained that one already. All you need to do is rotate the distributor. But, you need to find out why you cant hit the mark. Did you unplug the computer wire from the distributor before setting the base timing? (that's in the repair manual, or google it to show you which wire) If you didn't, then the computer is going to keep adjusting the timing to compensate for you turning the distributor.

 

yes i unplugged the wire, i dont see why its not running when i get it over the mark, it will only run about 30 degrees advanced