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jeremiahkellam
01-03-2009, 09:56 PM
Alright, here we go.

94 gt with few engine mods.

The most recent was a E303 cam. Did everything by the book. Set to TDC and went to work. Everything went flawless. I only changed the cam, dist is about 6 months old (autozone). used the same sprockets and chain. Lined the dots up on cam and crank sprocket. When I reinstalled the damper pulley, I found that the timing marks are off about 5 degrees (after tdc).
When everything was done, went to fire it up, it only cranked, and cranked, and cranked. I scratched my head and started over. Reset TDC, then I decided to pull cap on dist. The rotor was pointing straight foward, 6 oclock, towards the front. I figured I was a dumb ass, pulled the dist and reset rotor to 12 oclock. It fired right up and idled fine. It has been started a run for up to 20 min a few times since then (about 3 weeks) but has not been driven yet. Today, I started it and idled for maybe 2 min. I started it a few hours later, it started right up but the idled surged pretty good a few times and then died. It did the a few times. (I had never set the timing since installing the cam, but had it close enough to run smooth and had good throttle response).

Now this is where it gets wierd. After it surged and died, I turned engine to TDC, pulled the dist cap and the rotor was pointing at 6 oclock. WTF!!
Pulled dist and reset. Tried to start and it only cranked. Pulled cap off again, and again the rotor was pointing right in my face (6 oclock) WTF AGAIN!!
Pulled dist and reset, this time it fired up but still surged and died, just to see, I pulled cap, and guess what, thats right, 6 oclock. I did this dance a few times with the same results.

Pulled the dist to check gear teeth, all there and the mesh feels good when installing.
Turned engine over looking down in dist hole to check gears on cam, all there.
So I have a mechanical problem between crankshaft and cam, or between cam and dist. I even tried cranking engine with cap off dist to watch the rotor to see if it was jumping around, but it just rotated nice and smooth.

What throws me off, is the everytime the dist rotor makes this magical jump, it is always exactly 180 degrees.

So... any ideas???

GlennCMC70
01-03-2009, 10:16 PM
are you SURE your setting TDC on the compression stroke?
i would pull the valve cover and visually verify the TDC ref your using is really TDC by makig sure the valves are in fact closed. then set the distributor again.

also check the balancer to ensure its not spinning on the hub. w/ it being 180 degree's - i doubt it.

GlennCMC70
01-03-2009, 10:18 PM
also, were the dots lined up on the cam/crank sprokets when you took it apart? if not, it should have been if you were to put it back together that way.

David Love AI27
01-03-2009, 10:23 PM
make sure the pin holding the gear on the dist is not missing or sheared... also like Glenn said I had similar issues whith my last motor change... check it three times and was still 180 out :shock: finally I'm right here in Tomball so if you need an extra set of eyes, I'm your huckleberry 8) ... I sent a pm about bring over my dist... but it is different... :(

mitchntx
01-03-2009, 11:00 PM
Almost sounds like the issue Wayne Manor had at TWS a couple years ago.

Wasn't his problem a chewed up worm gear on the camshaft?

David Love AI27
01-03-2009, 11:06 PM
Almost sounds like the issue Wayne Manor had at TWS a couple years ago.

Wasn't his problem a chewed up worm gear on the camshaft?

I wasn't aware of Wayne's ordeal but it would make sense... rotor stopping at the same spot...

Rob Liebbe
01-04-2009, 10:19 AM
But Jeremiah states that his turns around nice and smooth when cranking.

marshall_mosty
01-04-2009, 11:07 AM
On the foxes, you can pull the oil fill cap on the PS valve cover and sight the intake rocker arm. This will keep you from having to pull the valve cover. Don't know if it's the same on the SN95 cars.

jeremiahkellam
01-04-2009, 12:24 PM
You learn something new everyday, and today I learned I'm a dumb ass.

Thanks for everyones input

michaelmosty
01-04-2009, 12:29 PM
You have to tell us what the mess-up was. :)

jeremiahkellam
01-04-2009, 12:35 PM
I was hoping I wouldn't have to...

I figured it out after taking a few minutes to calm down and think about. I got carried away when things didn't work just perfect. I was doing some welding in the car and my dad had disconnected the battery, which made the PCM lose what little it had learned about the new cam, I guess that's why the idle was suddenly off. The dist problem was just some confusion between the compression stroke and the exhaust stroke. I had been working all day, and when I started it up and it didn't run right, I just went to jerking stuff out without double checking, and then it just got worse from there.

GlennCMC70
01-04-2009, 01:24 PM
nice.

jeffburch
01-04-2009, 02:05 PM
This reminds me of the day I put my new motor in a year or so ago.
I chased my tail for a whole day with the timing.
Thought I was going crazy(er).

Almost new (chinese) balancer was turning freely.

jb