so i tried it again today... turns over and over, does not backfire any more, but does not start either... pulled #1spark plug and grounded it - sparks fine, about once per second... so what now? did i damage smth by tying to start it while it was hooked up wrong? is it one of the sensors? will getting an aldl cable help even without being able to start the car?

 

Well if you got spark and the firing order is right try giving her a squirt of the GumOut in the throttle body with the throttle to the floor. But be careful becuase if you have the wires crossed it could spit back some flames at ya.

How is the spark? Is it nice and blue with a good pop to it? Or is is orange and whimpy?

 

would just any carb cleaner work??? also, will it still run with the intake elbow taken off?

the spark looked wimpy, but i did not pay attention to its color... are the plugs gapped proper at 0.045 ???
i can smell somegas in the exhaust

can it be any of the sensors? like maf or map?

 

ok, so i took the intake elbow off, and sprayed gumout carb cleanerdirectly into throttle body- nothing... i put the intake elbow back on, unhooked the opti vent input, and sprayed gumout into the intake elbow throuhg the resulting hole - after three squirts, i got a bad backfire through the intake and some smoke came out of the air filter... so what now? could i have damaged my maf sensor by the backfire?

 

ok, so it seems like this is an entirely different problem, so i am going to start a new thread for it...

 

No your mass air will be fine. Normally I take the intake elbow completly off when I am using this method to test no starts. Sounds like your wires are crossed honestly. Take a deep breath and really focus on them wires. I assume it still pops and such even without gum out correct? Just not as bad as when you add more fuel.. Does this sound like the way of it? If so I really think your wires are mixed up.

 

OK, well maybe we can help each other - here's my info maybe we can compare similarities...
I did a complete 383 rebuild which includes a brand new complete assembledAccel Opti with new wires and I also get horible backfiring when trying to start.
History with this car is about 125,000 miles on stock opti - worked OK after I cleaned out restictor plug at about 120,000 miles. During the rebuild I broke the casing so I bought brand new $199 ACcel from JCWhitney.
Checked and double checked the wires, but only thing I get upon cranking is exhaust backfires and absolutely no engine spin from combustion - just backfires - some small, some loud - but always though exhaust, Checked spark and it is also consistent and one time per cylinder. Am using stock coil assembly.
This is where it gets weird. about 1yr ago I decided to install MSD6AL on the original OPTI. It worked great for about 1 month, then upon startup one day it only backfired, could not figure it out so unplugged MSD and it ran perfect since. Now, complete rebuilt and new OPTI, back to backfiring.

May be worth looking at the coil and it's little module?? Have you checked/borrowed/replaced it? I have not. Hope something in here helps.

 

Fixed my Opti Backfiring by checking what distributor output actually would fire #1 cyl, and found it to be the dist #7 output... then realized the rotor was at the #7 terminal for cyl #1 to fire... (good = rotor at #1 for cyl #1 to fire) therefore... this meant the cam or dist was out of phase...

Checked the Cam timing to be correct (according to the Cloyes timing marks - round dot to round dot with the cam dowel at the approx 3 oclock position WITH CYL #1 at TDC), then compared my new opti to the original opti and found the rotor to be out of phase (rotor tip lined up with the cam dowel = #7 cyl dist terminal) the rotor tip needs to be approx 90 degrees from the cam dowel at this point (cyl #1).

Hope this helps someone - at least it can help troubleshoot at the least.

Again, my symptoms were random backfiring in the exhaust with absolutely no cranking thrust... (plug firing when exhaust valve open igniting gas fumes in combustion chamber while piston is near bottom of stroke).