97 Blazer won't start after intake gasket. timing? please help!

My brother and I just finished up the wonderfully fun task of replacing the intake gasket on his 97 blazer 4X4. Once we put everything back together, and hooked teh battery back up, he cranked it over. It sounded like all was good for a crank or two, and then it bogged down.

I pulled the distributor thinking the timing was off (I only marked the base position, not the rotor). I re-installed the ditributor with the motor at TDC (felt compression in cylinder one, while turning the crank by hand and lining up the timing marks on the crank.), and the rotor pointing to the "6" on the dist. housing. The line on the rotor and the "6" were not perfectly aligned, but were much less than a tooth off. (more like 2-3 mm)

Now same thing. I crank it, and it will turn fast then bog down, turn fast then bog down. The starter motor almost stops. I wouldn't think the battery to be low, as we had it disconnected during the procedure which was less than 24 hrs. I haven't tried jumping it, as if there is something wrong, I don't want to cause further damage.

Any help would be truly appreciated!

I'm almost thinking that your distributer is set 180 degrees out. It's a very common mistake and easy to do.

1 other posibility is that you've got it badly flooded.

You might want to pop 2 plugs and examine them. If they're soaked pull them all, clean them and let the cylinders dry out before re-installing them.

And the last thing, but I'm sure that you've already looked into is your plug wires might be hooked to the wrong cylinder.

I'm almost thinking that your distributer is set 180 degrees out. It's a very common mistake and easy to do.

1 other posibility is that you've got it badly flooded.

You might want to pop 2 plugs and examine them. If they're soaked pull them all, clean them and let the cylinders dry out before re-installing them.

And the last thing, but I'm sure that you've already looked into is your plug wires might be hooked to the wrong cylinder.


I was thinking I might be 180 degrees off, but according to my manual, and a diagram I found on here, I'm not. I'm pretty sure I'm at TDC, based upon the airflow from the sparkplug hole on cyl. #1.

Should I just try flipping it? And if so, would you suggest making the adjustment at the crank or on the dist?

I would try flipping it around. It just takes a moment.

Just make the adjustment at the distributer.

I would try flipping it around. It just takes a moment.

Just make the adjustment at the distributer.

I just removed the distrubutor again. I decided to look at this logically rather than taking the manuals advice. According to the manual/ diagram that I picked up from this site, the rotor is set to fire cyl #5. If cyl #1 is at the top of it's compression stroke, shouldn't it be the one firing? Maybe I'm missing something.

Should the rotor be set to fire cyl #1 at the exact point where the timing lines on the crank line up? Or, should it still be on the previous contact (#3)?

Disregard my last post. I was looking at my cap wrong. The diagram that I have does line the rotor up with cyl #1. This is the flat cap that actually sends the spark from one side to the other.

Now the only way I could be 180 degrees off is if I'm not truly at TDC. Both time I set TDC, I used two different methods.

1st, I checked for valve movement while lining up the timing marks on the crank...no movement,

2nd, I remove spark plug # 1 and felt for compression while lining up timing marks on crank.

Are these both correct?

I have noticed that I can not get the marks in the distributor to line up perfectly, but the manual says "within a few degrees", and I'm only a couple of mm's off.

If so, then my timing should be okay, correct?

Anything else I should look for?

I always turn the motor until the #1 piston is at the top, then point the distributer to #1 position. If it doesn't almost fire up instantly then I know that it's 180 degrees out. At this point I make a mental note where the rotor is pointing, take the distributer out and flip the rotor to point the other way. It doesn't mater if it's at TDC or not at this point since you know which way the rotor should be pointing.

Every time that I've done this it's fired right up for me, and then I take the timing light and adjust the timing according to the book.

I finally got it!!!!

I actually had the distributor right, but there are two marks on the harmonic balancer that look the same. I didn't see this until my last trip out to the garage. I was just using the first one that I saw, assuming that I would not see another one for an entire revolution. There is actually a second mark < 1/4 turn from the first that was hidden by the water pump. I noticed also that when I was trying to find TDC with my finger in the sp hole, that there seemed to be more stroke left before true TDC. I lined it up with the second mark and, voila perfect smooth idle.

Of course, the fact that this particular dist is fixed in postion helps a guy like me who hasn't yet used a timing light. My personal vehicles have the rotor directly attached to the overhead cam (stupid resistant).

Thank you so much for the input. Just to have someone cooresponding kept me from getting too frustrated!

Sorry that I didn't mention that. The 2.8L actually has 4 marks so I have the proper 1 painted a different color.
Plus I didn't know that the 4.3L did the same sort of thing.

Good to see that it's running.