More problems...Fire in the carb

[sext7366]

ok I have had this happen before but not without cause...I just changed my head gaskets and now the damn thing won't start and you can see fire in the carb.  Its not spitting fire mind you, I can just see it flaming out of the carb a little while trying to start it.  This is with the choke on.  I double checked the firing order 18436572 counterclockwise it still did it so I figured I screwed up the timing double checked it, still right and still happening.  Nothing else I can think of was changed except that the coil wires were installed backwards at first and the car backfired, but then after recorrecting that ?
Its a 383 slightly modified but this shouldn't matter because as I said I just changed gaskets and nothing more.

[Charger-Bodie]

did you have the distributer out could it be 180 off?

[firefighter3931]

  Sounds like it's 180* off. The piston on #1 cylinder should be at the top of the bore when it's firing.


Ron

[sext7366]

The #1 is facing up not down which is where it was before and I took off the cap to make sure the rotor was also pointing up

[Nacho-RT74]

OK, if everything is joined as factory specs then #1 should be pointing down toward to alternator rear bracket, anyway depeding on how you assemblied the sprockets, dist/oil shaft, you can get it pointing anywhere and still working good.

The best way you can get everything working no matter how is assemblied is remove the spark plug and fill the hole with paper or anything you have around to fill the hole slightly pressed and then crank the engine by steps from the starter relay, with a jumper between big stud and small screw. You will heard an explosion at the compression/explosion time and plug will be shoot. ON that point must be pointing out the rotor. Make several tries untill you catch with more precission the number one position, thinking rotor will allways pass a little bit of the position where really did happen the explosion.

[Mfr426]

Sounds exactly like the dist is 180 out (as the others have mentioned). I remember having a hell of a time with my very first car (a 70 RR with a 440) and it shot flames out the carb just like you mention. An old car buddy of you my Dad come over at lunch, we pulled the dist out, spun it 180 and she fired right up.

[Back N Black]

wire it 180 deg. out see if it fires up then you know for sure its 180 deg. out ?

[67_Dodge_Charger]

Are you getting gas in the exhaust?  Check your rocker arm torque specifications.  %&^ happens.

Try moving the distributor while cranking the engine over.  The distributor might be one tooth off. 

good luck

Robert

[Mfr426]

Can the dist be "one tooth off"? I thought it was either right on or 180 degrees off?

?

[Charger-Bodie]

Can the dist be "one tooth off"? I thought it was either right on or 180 degrees off?

?

if the oil pump drive came out with the dist. and fell back in out of time it could be but very unlikely

[whitehatspecial]

Make sure #1 is on the compression stroke, then set the distributor so that rotor lines up with #1 on the cap.

[sext7366]

Ok this still makes no sense to me...but I did get it running. The Rotor is pointing to the right of the engine (from the front of the car), but the number one plug wire has to be oposite this for the car to run.  It runs fine like this no fire, hesitation, etc.  Does this seem kinda screwy to anyone else?  My distributor is the mopar performance elec from summit.  Thanks mikepmcs for the pic, I hijacked it just for reference.
So basically its 180 degrees out huh? Is this a problem, or does it just mean it may take a few seconds longer to fire up?  If it is a problem I am guessing I just do what mfr426 said and pull the distributor and rotate it 180 degrees right?  But if this is necessary I can tell you my next problem...my vacuum advance will hit the valve cover if I do this which is why its installed as it is.

[Mfr426]

Perhaps I  should claify. Take off the dist cap, pull out the distributor and spin the ROTOR 180 degrees and then slide the distributor back in. The vacuum port will not move from the position it is now. The only that that you spin is the shaft with the rotor on it, not the whole distributor.

Make sense?

Good luck.

Mike R