86 chevy C30 timing

Hi, I have an 86 chevy c30, 454. Just pretty much rebuilt the distributor. Being a newbie I made a mistake and pulled the distributor before getting it TDC. I set it TDC before reinstalling and aligned it to #1. It now blows out air/gas out of the top of the carb when I try to start it which, from what I understand is a timing thing. Not quite sure what to do next. Can anyone help please?

Are you sure that #1 is at TDC on compression? The timing mark on the damper can be either #1 or #6.

#1 is what my dumb book said so that is what i did:)

you can take cap off, mark where rotor is pointing then pull it out and turn rotor 180 degrees and put it back in or set it to tdc again and see where its pointing and then remove it and rotate it 180 degrees

Thanks I'll try it. I dont think i should've moved it after i took it out the first time!

Ok now I've set it at tdc again pulled the cap the rotor was at 180. I reset it to 1 and tried to start it again. The carb didn't belch this time but it still wont start. I'm getting to old for this!!

pull a wire off a plug and make sure you have good spark, then if you have a timing light you can see how close the timing is when you crank it

Distributor turns clockwise. From cylinder #1 (which is whatever tower that the rotor points at while TDC on #1 compression stroke), the firing order, clockwise, is 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2.

If it is easy enough to do, I take off the passenger side rocker cover and then check to see that the #6 cylinder pushrods are tight and cannot be spun by hand on at least one valve, possibly both. This indicates that cylinder is on its exhaust/intake stroke (TDC), which would put #1 on its compression TDC.