Guys I almost have the car running tonight!!! I just installed dual weber DGV's and a full msa 6 to 1 header, with 2.5inch exhaust. I took all of my old smog crap off and put all of that on. SHE WONT START NOW!?!?! I did at least 90% of it right:stupid:. I cranked it for 2 minutes then found that a lead was off of the coil. I thought it was ignition so i put the mallory distributor and new plug wires. I am 92% sure plugs are in right place ( I labled them on car i took off). Now THe webers are HISSING AND POPPING when i crank it to start... I have heard about this b4 but dont know what it is....... PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I really want to hear it tonight!

is your concern that the plug wires are not in the right place.

Well, not really but that may be the problem. It is shooting air back up the intake manifold to the carbs so it may be becase the plugs are in the wrong cylinders but pple tell me it is running lean, and I dont know how to fix it....

ALRIGHT!! It is firing!!!

I had the distributor in 180 from what it should have been, so it was firing on the exhaust cycle... The only problem is I couldnt get my stock distributor to work so I had to use the aftermarket one. I did not take the aftermarket distributor sleeve off the car i got it from so i can only tighten it down with the bracket. The whole assembly will move while connected(unless tightened). Sooooo I kinda guessed and got it somewhat close to what I think it should be. It took about 5 tries of starting and then getting out and turning the distrib about a quarter inch or so untill it actually idled. Ohh and i messed with the fuel mixture, need valves adjusted and am running out of fuel so add those to the equation. I took it for a drive because it seemed to be idling OK and + I dont have any self control. It was doing fine for the first 2 or 3 mins then it started spurting out of the carb again when I accelerated! it was kind of like bogging except just poping and spurting. That is my story.

I may be wrong but could the carbs need to be re-synced? I know they were running correctly in my car, but they were

tuned for my car.(if that statement even applies, i don't know if carbs have to be tuned different for different engines of the same type.) You can try movining the mixture screw on the side of the carbs. Just Remember how much you turned it so if it gets worse you can put it back.

I know MSA sell synch tools for them also.

Just my guess at the prob.

I dont know didily about webbers . But first of all you need self control or your going to get everything screwed up and not know where to start. You know that the dist. is not correct so why are you messing with the carbs ? Fix one thing at a time other wise you wont know what is causing what. Not a good idea to be driving with a loose dist. you could bend a rod or blow a piston. Which is ok if you want to do a complete rebuild. Get the correct mounting for the dist. check the fireing order and the plug wires to see if they are correct. and then start the engine and set the timing. once that is done then work on the carbs. If you eliminate one thing at a time you will make progress but if you are adjusting three things at a time you wont know what is doing what. All the best of luck . Gary:classic:

i agree -----process of elimination. also---i like toast.steve:stupid:

I did not know the dist was backwards. I told people it was spitting at me and they said it was lean, and to adjust carbs. Later found out about distributor. But you are probobly right I should calm down and think more before I do some serious damage:tapemouth

i dont want to sound pompous-----just asking,should you need help---do you know how to make the distributor not backwards. steve

I probobly do need help:stupid:. But I fell on a string of bad luck you see. First I left the stock distributor in to cut down on the variables in case the car did not start. I cranked it and nothing happend, no firing whatsoever. So i tested distributor by taking a plug out and grounding on motor and looking for spark. No spark. So now I know it is my distributor. I figured that because I dont know ANYTHING about all of this vacum line business and i did not hook the vacume distrib tube up... So after I had switched it out with the mallory aftermarket one I found a lead to the coil that had slipped off...

So it turns out the stock one was fine just a lead slipped off the coil. I already had the aftermarket one in so might as well try it. I did not get the sleeve for the distributor off of the parts car but it fit and I did not really realize that it would spin around in the stock sleeve. So I cranked it and it started spitting out the carbs...

I talked to a few people and they said that means it is running lean, So then I messed with the carbs for a while and could not get anything to happen. So I did some searches on these forums and finally found a guy who suggested a distributor cap in 180* backwards.

So i went out and found that the aftermarket one slid around the sleeve! So i turned it, started, turned, started etc. untill it started running. This was dumb and I should not have done this! I Later realized I could have thrown a rod or had a piston valve collision!

I finally realized that my stock one would do better, so i swaped them (and had to fabricate the ground on the dist).

It finally fired up. So I took her for a ride and tried to get the carbs reasonably tuned. I plan to take it to get a profesional carb tune, valve tune, and anything else I missed.

So thats my story of that, next time I will definantly pace myself more, and not stay up untill 4 in the morning trying to get it to run!!!

well-----what you described is the whole learning process. sounds like you learned alot in a couple of nights. out of curiosity -------what on earth is a valve/piston collision. steve

I know there is some racing name for it. like a "piston ping" or something of that sort... But It baisically happens in race or high revving situations.

When an engine is revving really high sometimes it has "valve float" valve float is when the valve springs arent fast enough in pushing the valves back down when opening for the intake or exhaust cycles. Soooo what happens is when the piston comes up for compression or exhaust the valve is still open and in the way of the piston...BAM... collision. It is not a very fun thing to happen so I have heard