Help with starting my 383

[steve from staten island]

My 383 is out of the car on a stand and I'm having some issue's with it. I had it running after some ignition problems but I'm not sure if the firing order is correct or a carb issue. The carb was rebuilt by a shop that does only carb rebuilding. I have a petronix 2 ignitor and coil. I had the #1 piston at TDC,timing mark at 0. The vacuum advance was pointing toward the drivers fender. I started with #1 wire were the rotor was pointing. Still hard to start won't idle. When i checked it again it seemed the rotor was off slightly from were #1 was at. I moved each plug wire over one spot and this helped but not enough. Can the rotor stop in-between the towers on the cap,so that its in-between 1 and 8? Is this possible? I also notice when it was running and i moved the distributor i did not see any change. In addition when it does start it will only start with the distributor in a set spot. Please bare with me i know this hard to understand and I'm having trouble properly explaining it but I'm trying the best i can. Any advise is appreciated ---------Thanks

 

[The Horvaths]

Best to use a timing light. Barring that, you can get decent timing results using a vacuum gauge. Tune for best vacuum then check for hot start troubles or pinging. Retard slightly to mitigate either of those conditions.

BTW: you do have water or coolant in it, right?

 

[steve from staten island]

Yes i have coolant in it but the radiator is not hooked up so i can't run it for more than a few minutes. I just wanted to get it to run somewhat before i put it in my car. Im going to hook my vacuum gage tomorrow and try it.

 

[khryslerkid]

I'd pull all the plugs, rotate the crank with a 1/2" ratchet, with your finger in the #1 plug hole. When you feel the compression building, watch for your mark on the crank. When it lines up with top dead center, stop. Then check your distributor for alignment. Remember the firing order is counter clockwise. Your rotor button should be just starting to line up with the #1 tower in the cap. Not dead center. CCW direction, 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2

 

[Xp29h]

Also don't go by timing mark on balancer as they can move from TDC. Use finger or piston stop as mentioned to make sure the piston is up TDC on compression stroke.

Good luck!

 

[miller]

Pull all your plugs, to make it easy to turn over the engine by hand. Looking for TDC compression stroke is not a sure deal using a finger over the plug hole. All depends on the cam, and cam timing. Valve overlap on exhaust stroke can push your finger off, too.
But, no big deal, since even if you do set the timing on exhaust stroke, it will backfire big time. Just 180 degrees out, and you need to re-stab the distributor.

Bring #1 piston to the top, and look at the timing mark on the balancer. It's either right, or wrong, but it will tell you which one. Also know, timing mark comes up, say for #1, on BOTH compression and exhaust stroke.

Also kinda helps to know where the timing should be set, BEFORE TDC, however many degrees, and go from there.
Stand back for a minute, think about it, and you'll get it.