Backfire!

Hey,
I have a 1991 Buick roadmaster 305, and I would have to say I’m not a GREAT mechanic, but I’m OK...any ways, I change a head gasket in my car, took the intake off, and the distributor, and all that good stuff, well i got my car back together and its not wanting to start, when i let the starter spin, it'll just backfire thru the carb, but not start/run at all, so I’m wondering if its the way I dropped the distributor, or is in a faulty seal on the intake or head gasket.
Hope you can help me

Trent Hamilton

sounds like the distubitor is in the wrong spot. Did you put number one cylinder on TDC and line up the rotor and all of that? I would try redoing your ing. timing.

Also, if you go to put your pistion at TDC and go to far (the pistion starts to travel down) DON'T BACKSPIN THE ENGINE!!!!! :nono:

If you do this, the backlash between the crank gear and cam gear can make your dis. teeth off by as much as 2 teeth (Depending on how worn your timing chain and gears are.

The moderator is correct, it sounds like your ignition timing is out of sync with the mechanical side of your engine. You need to do a static timing. Verify #1 piston at TDC, verify #1 intake and exhaust valves are closed on both sides of TDC, and install the distributor such that fully seated the distributor rotor is pointing at #1 cylinder. This should be good to get the engine started. What probably caught you is the distributor gears are helical, so even if the distributor is in the right orientation when you start installing it, as the gears meash and the distributor drops in, the rotor turns.

i had the same problem when i did my distributor and i found out that when i put the plug wires on the #1 cylider i went in the wrond direction around the cap. so my timing was 180 degrees off