Whats Wrong Here?

[LittleRam50]

Replaced head gasket and other gaskets. new plugs turned distributor 180, new starter too. everything tdc when replaced. Idk whats going on but when I try to start the engine it wants to start it starts to fire then dies on me. at a loss again. 87 Ram 50 G63B 2.0.

[BradMph]

ANy chance at all you can video tape the start tries? Is it backfiring at all or doing anything funny. Usually when a car doesn't start you go after certain areas. For example, Fuel, Electrical, Mechanical. So, your is obviously turning over so mechanical is pretty much solved. Elctrical and fuel are left. Are you getting spark to the plugs, you could remove a plug and lay it on a ground area to ground plug and crank it over. You should see a spark jump across that spark plug to the grounded area. It that happens, Next would be fuel checking. Keeping the engine together you can look into the carb and flick the throttle and see if your getting a squirt of fuel from the accelerator pump. That is a quick way to check and anything deeper involves removing things and so on. Maybe have a buddy turning the engine over and as he does, turn the distributor over it's range and see if you can catch a fire up with this. If its getting fuel and spark, the only thing I can think of is it is so far out of time that its not even getting a thought of starting. Is the truck turning over strangley faster with the new starter or slower. Did the starter have a wire hanging off it for connection to the inhibitor switch. This will allow 12 volts to the start during starts and also will stop it from turning if the vehicle is not in park or clutched.
I know you have gone through the timing belt scene and said you had it all lined up right. Are you sure the engine was on a compression stroke when all these are lined up? One way to tell when your lined up and on the right stoke is the rockers on the no.! pistong will be loose, showing that the cylinder is sealed off at both the intake and exhaust valves. This would be your compression stroke when the crank pulley is at TDC.
There are so many things that could happen that visually can be deteted with another set of eyes. I know your frustrated because it frustrates me too. But you have to retrace something that might of been done and is not correct now. If your not even getting a hiccup from the motor when trying to start, it sounds like no spark. Check to be sure. Remember fuel, Electical, Mechanical. Remove one and move to the next diagnosing. Get your manual or one of the ones here to download and follow their troubleshooting. Keep at it and if you have some video camera, go for it. Upload them to YouTube and place a link in your thread. If the trucks kicking your ass, take a break from it for a while and come back to it later. One more thing, stop buying stuff for it if it doesn't need it. Don't chase a problem with money, this never seems to work. When you replace things on yor truck, do one at a time and check afterwards that it still runs ok. Never do a massive replacement of stuff and then find out something went wrong. Then your lost in what it was you replaced that did this. You turned your dizzy 180 degrees I see. Are you sure you needed to do this. Did it run before you did this? WHen a dizzy is 180 off, your going to get back firing and some real shitty running engine, if it starts. If your moving backwards and now the engine will not even start, put thing back the way they were so you can atleast get it to run. Running can get you farther towards diagnosing then a dead truck can. Hang in there, your learning at the same time here. It's a good lesson and I have learned many as well.

If you lived a little closer I'd come help you, lol.

[LittleRam50]

Thanks for the reply! The engine wants to fire and it does for about 3 seconds and it now wants to fire much quicker with the new starter. It don't believe it wanted to start when it was back 180. I will double check the compression stroke for #1 and get back to you on that, its getting fuel it squirts into the carb for sure, the inhibitor switch is connected I believe? theres two wires on it and they're both hooked up. :)

[LittleRam50]

#1 rocker arms are loose! :))

[camoit]

Did you pull the cam out? I never do when changing the head gasket. I just pull the gear off the front and let it sit on the metal plate and then lift the head off. Never looses time that way. Put 12 volt on the + side of the coil and try. See what it does. Or check to make sure it has 12 volt at all times when cranking and when the key is on.

[LittleRam50]

got it all figured out. Thanks guys. :)

[camoit]

got it all figured out. Thanks guys. :)


So what was it???

[LittleRam50]

advanced the distributor and fuel air mix is off.