1979 Camaro 350. Ive been trying to get it started for so long. It used to just keep turning over and backfiring through the carburetor. Today I realized Im not getting spark past the HEI distrbutor. Could the coil be bad or the module? Another thing is the timing mark on the harmonic balancer is about 30 degrees off. The number 1 cylinder reaches TDC at about 30 degrees before according to the tab. What could that mean? Is my cam shot?

 

First I would remove the cylinder 1 spark plug to see if its actually being used. They shouldnt be burnt but they should have signs of use. If it doesnt look like its firing then i would pull the boot from your distributor that goes to cylinder 1 while turning the engine over (If youre doing this on your own then you may need to jump from the starter). Pull from the distributor, not the plug first. if it is sparking then you are still getting fire. Then pull from the plug, if it is sparking there as well as from the dist. then its a timing issue. If it isnt firing from the cap to begin with then I would go from there back. The camshaft should be good, its a very resilient piece of the engine and several electrical issues will usually occur before those give problems. Even still the backfiring issue sounds like youre loading fuel up somewhere and not burning it in the correct sequence. I believe its an ignition problem. Coils, Dist. Wires plugs etc.

 

I don't know how long you've been rotating this thing while pumping gas into it, but you probably have enough gas in your oil now that you'll have an issue.

 

Any engine that burns fuel internally whether it burns Diesel, jet fuel or gas is an internal combustion engine. The only one that doesn't conform to this is a rocket engine, it burns externally!

 

sounds like your 180 degrees off (TDC on #6 not #1). Try pulling the distributer and flipping it 180 or just pull the rotor and flip it. Fuel backfiring out of the carb is usually timed 180 off. good luck

 

If you're backfiring through the carb then you're getting spark. Like 95 Cammy said, it sounds like a timing issue. You can put a light on #1 and rotate it with the starter to see if #1 is firing close to where it should be. How do you know the tab mark is 30 degrees off? FS68 is right when he says to pull the distributor and reset so 12 degrees BTDC lines up on your tab and the rotor is pointing at #1 tower. You might have to move the oil pump driveshaft with a screwdriver to get it right.

 

Steam engines are external combustion, and I'm not sure where this post came from. Kinda random.