Installed the 340 "mule" motor, charged battery, set timing, and used the 318 Carter two-barrel carburetor with fabricated adaptor to use for initial start-up. I thought I had set ignition timing around 10° BTDC but motor did not want to keep running. So I installed the '72 Thermoquad I had rebuilt myself.
Still had problems trying to fire it up. I cranked it so many times, I began to worry about camshaft/lifter damage so I removed the intake manifold to inspect the lifters. They still looked virgin. Applied break-in lube and put things back together.
Then I messed with the timing again but only got it running after having re-oriented all the spark plug wires on top of the distributor cap. They remained in the same firing order, but indexed them one spot over. Finally got it started for about five minutes when coolant shot up and out of the radiator (I had left the radiator cap off). I shut down the motor.
Then I purchased a spring loaded TDC tool to determine how and why my ignition timing was so difficult to set correctly. I had recently replaced the harmonic balancer with another second-hand balancer that had the timing mark notch in a different location (for a model with a timing tab on the passenger side). This threw my ignition timing way off and I still can't believe I did not notice this discrepancy when I did the switch! (built my first Mopar small block in 1973).
I re-marked the balancer and set the timing correctly at about 10° BTDC using a remote starter switch and timing light after having removed the spark plugs.
Then I went to the trouble to remove the intake manifold a second time to inspect the hydraulic lifters again. I still found no visible damage. I re-applied break in lube on the lifter faces and over the top of the camshaft for a second time now.
I primed the carb by cranking for 15 seconds about 3 times with the spark plugs removed. Then installed the plugs and wires, squirted additional gasoline down the primary throat, set the choke and fast idle. This time after cranking for about one second the motor fired up and ran straight up to about 2,500 to 3,000 rpm. I ran it for ten minutes and shut it down. I did hear some valve train clicking. Need to break in the camshaft another 10 minutes tomorrow. I have not decided yet as to run it again as is or try to adjust the valves beforehand.
I initially had adjusted the hydraulic lifters cold using 1/4 turn past point of removing slack in the valve train (using rebuilt 273 adjustable rockers) using the Direct Connection chart as a guide that shows how to adjust two valves after rotating the crankshaft every 90 degrees. Being that I performed this procedure with the timing marks in the wrong place (as previously explained) it probably made my adjustments less than perfect.
This time I had filled the radiator to the top and replaced the radiator cap. A very short time after having shut down the motor, some coolant spilled from the overflow hose onto the ground (does not have a catch can/recovery tank yet).
