I just got through rebuilding the top end of my 306...upon initial startup it didnt seem to want to fire up right away...so I tried turning the distributor counter clockwise then clockwise when it finally kicked over...it stumbled and backfired>>. then i turn the dist. the other way and it tried to start but spit up and coughed and then a small fire developed in the carb!! with nothing to put it out I just runed it over again and the fire went out, I then tried turning the dist. a little more and tried starting again, then all of a sudden the trurning over got slower and i stopped.... i tried starting again but now all i get is clicking.... I felt the wire going to the soleniod and it was hot on both sides, could I have fried the starter???? this sucks! I'm all set to run this thing now it wont turn over...is there any way to test the starter to see if it is fried? or maybe i was doing something wrong to begin with? thanks
Sounds like a bad cable or connection, also sound like the battery went dead..... Charge the battery, you can take the starter to most auto parts stores and get them tested.....
yeah I tried it with a jump start and still nothing... for the hell of it i tried turning it over with the headlights on and they went dim went trying to turn it over.. also, I tested the continuity from the starter side of the solenoid to ground and I have continuity there.... so, I'm guessing the starter kicked the bucket at the worse time.... oh well at least I'm getting a new starter... .. i was getting 13 volts at the battery
yea may be your starter or just the wire going to your starter. and your engine running its all in the timing thats why you have back firing and all find tdc again and once you get a starter or find that problem crank it and you should have no backfiring when at tdc either its out of timing or if your timing chain has more than one key way hole it could be on the wrong key way hole. im saying this just because i found that out the hard way on my car when i was trying to get it started good luck
also the lifters were new and not pumped up < i was wondering if that had any thing to do with the engine stumbling? how long does it take for them to pump up? i primed the oil pump but didnt run it very long after i saw oil coming from the pushrods... should I have primed the oil pump longer to pump up the lifters?
so lastnight I attempted to pull the starter and it seems the header is touching the starter lead terminal!!! hopefully the starter is not damaged. now I have to deal with this first ....
i dont know much about priming the oil when i started my engine for the first time i just turned it for about 15 seconds at a time till i saw my oil pressure on the gauge come up. but oil pressure or not you shouldn't be backfiring that's all in the timing or the lashing of your valves. as for you starter i wouldnt think that would kill it but just take a bfh and bang the header in so it doesnt touch
The positive wire to the starter,(the one in the picture) cannot touch any other metal. Including the header pipe, most all the metal on the car acts like a return wire carring electricity back to the negative side of the battery completing the curcuit. The bolt touching the header pipe is certainly causing a huge short! This bad of a shortcurcuit is probably the cause of the ignition problem. If you still have a problem with it starting,(after you take care of the short!) then the timing is out. When installing the timingchain, the timing marks on the crank and cam sprockets may have not been lined up properly. Here is a example. Good luck.
well everything was lined up as far as the camshaft and crank sprocket.... I'm in the process of fixing the header where it was touching the starter lead terminal, i banged it in a couple of times with a BFH and just got back from the auto parts store, unfortunately they only had mr gasket exhaust manifold gaskets...I'm going to throw it on there now... fire it up and see what happens this time. one other question, if I have the number one cylinder at TDC and the rotor pointing at the number one distributor cap position...shouldnt it fire right up? what is the static timing for these engines?
you can have #one piston at tdc, and the pointer at #one post, but still be on the exhaust stroke, or as they say, half out. make sure you are on tdc on compression stroke.
I still cannot get this thing started....what has me concerned now... is the box from the camshaft is saying its for a 351 ...I'm wondering if I should changed the firing order? when I advance it i get no activity, when I retard it I'm getting backfiring and even a little fire in the carb....
if the cam is for a 351 the firing order is different, its 1 3 7 2 6 5 4 8 and the 302 is 1 5 4 2 6 3 7 8 so yeah, change it.
Yea that would be your problem having a 351 cam in there changes the firing order and would give you back fire no matter what the timing is so swap that out with a edelbrock cam heard very good things for the price and has a real nice idle sound too
Well I don't know about changing the camshaft, I did however change the timing sequence and had a bit better luck, at this point I think the engine is flooded and unfortunately have ran the battery down... But it did however run briefly and stumbled, so it is still hopeful, I do think it is flooded though, so I will charge it overnight, get a decent pair of jumper cables and see what tomorrow brings...
