The machinist had a comp cams book with all the details, what is required with the cam and such and the book said the dual springs were required with this cam with stock heads. i guess maybe not, do people normally use dual springs with stock heads?
That was moths ago and i dont remember and now im questioning myself Ok i will take off the intake manifold and triple overcheck myself, i cant imagine if i had it on the opposite stroke it would run
You said it was a "mild" cam, which usually don't need dual springs. But mild is a relative term and your cam may require them. The press in studs don't do well with high lift/spring rates. Is the cam ground with the 302 or 351 firing order and have you used the corresponding order?
Yes, but if you line up the dots, there's only one way it can go. The cam spins once to 2 turns of the crank. The int & exh valves will be closed on the compression stroke if those dots are lines up. Now when stabbing the distributor, it does matter. Number one piston needs to be at TDC on the compression stroke.
If you used the recommended springs from Comp for that cam, they are what you are supposed to be using. They are not really "dual springs". They just have internal "dampers". I seriously doubt the springs are the problem.
as was already said... some basic bactracking type troubleshooting will surely apply here. Verify TDC compression stroke corresponds to the rotor pointing at #1 cap/wire location. If it was "180 out"?.. it wouldn't run at all and will sputter and pop through the intake and exhaust. But if it's "off a tooth"?.. it can still be made to run with timing changes. Just want to make damned sure that it's correct before doing anything else or you'll be wasting time by chasing your tail here. Verify cam's ground in firing order and make sure the disty's wiring order matches it. Simple oversight/mistake that has bitten many a long time engine builder/tuner. If you can't find the spec's?.. pull the valve cover and check physical movement of rockers. Verify what the springs closed/open pressures are. If they are much more than 120/270?.. you could VERY EASILY wipe a lobe at break-in if you lost an oil gallery plug and dropped pressure for too many seconds. Dial indicator measurements can be useful to measure lift at the top of pushrods to see if you need to be pulling the intake off and looking down lifter bores for obvious damage. You should also invest in a magnetic oil drain plug as they can often be good for early detection for these types of things.. depending on severity. Verify that you had "positive type" valve stem seals installed when your machine shop did the heads. While it's impossible that the startup smoking could cause the bigger issues you're seeing here.. it's always nice to seperate specific issues and know that you have superior parts from the old "umbrella seals" installed in your engine. If you end up finding out that you have the junk seals installed on those heads.. and cam issues warrant pulling the engine apart again?(metal particles are particularly bad news inside newly rebuilt motors since you're usually more concerned about making the most of your investement).. I'd seriously think about cutting down the guides and installing positive type seals since they will keep the motor running better for much.. much.. longer. Spark timing. If you're running over 30 degrees of timing at idle when the vacuum advance pot is hooked to a manifold vacuum source?.. you're fine. If you have over 30 degrees without that pot being added to the timing mix?.. then you likely have a bit too much and are compensating for some other variable. Personally.. on older iron headed motors(they prefer tons of spark lead compared to newer designs) I run TONS of initial timing lead.. to the point that the starter starts getting pissed during hot restarts and/or even starts kicking back.. and then pull out lots of mechanical advance to balance it back out. Then for a street motor, I run an adjustable vacuum pot on the disty that can be fine tuned for light throttle angles. Gives noticably more throttle response(higher vacuum readings) and tire chirping torque at much lighter throttle compared to waiting for the rev's to come up(mechanical curve to come in). Aftermarket disty's are much more flexible for adjustment when it comes to these types of curves. There's much more.. but I'm guessing that you'll find the issues somewhere within that area of troubleshooting.
If there are all moving the same approx amount a this isn't a wipe problem... Unless clicking, even a cam with half worn lobes will idle smoothly and the average person probably won't know the difference... A wiped exhaust lobe will cause a backfire out the carb and intake will basically miss fire like a bad spark plug, wire etc...
It doesn't matter if the cam gear is at 6 or 12 o'clock. As long as it's either position, it's timed. The cam turns at half the speed of the crank.
