Starting woes on engone rebuild/upgrade

[porscheboy1]

Hi guys. I have what I consider a weird problem of non starting on my new rebuild.

Here is what I have. 1978 3.0 SC engine from the sunroof coupe that I am restoring. PMO carbs, MSD ignition, re-curved dizzy by Barry, new engine wiring harness by Dennis, Web cams (solex grind). rebuilt heads, re-ground rockers, J&E 9:1 domed pistons with re-plated nickie cylinders, re-sized and re-bushed rods. SSI's. Bearings, gaskets, etc.

The engine is in the car and I am trying to run it. Fuel pump running and 3.5 pounds per inch squared fuel pressure at the carbs. Good spark at each cylinder as verified by removing the fuel pump relay and cranking the engine and removing one plug and lead at a time and shorting it out on the engine. The engine cranks over smartly and seems like it tries run along with the running starter but does nothing when the starter is released. I got a couple of pops out of one of the carbs. Surely I don't have the cams 180 degrees out? I put the Z1 mark on the fan pulley in line with the vertical mark I the crank case. Put the roater in line with the mark on the dizzy body. Now I am at TDC in cylinder 1. I remove the intake valve covers, ( this is actually fun with the carbs, no AC and back dated heat ). The rocker arm on cylinder 1 has play in it and the one on cylinder 4 is tight. I rotate the engine 360 degrees and the opposite is true. The cam timing should be OK. Although I can see the carb accelerator pumps squirting fuel I pour a small mount of raw fuel into each velocity stack. Still nothing happens. I check the float level on the carbs. The specifications say 12mm down from the top cover with the tang just touching the ball valve. I have 11mm. I should mention that this car sat in a field in the weather for four years before I bought it. It was driven to where it was parked. There are a lot of electrical gremlins in it, especially in the instrumentation. When the ignition is energized the speedometer pegs itself at 140mph, The oil tank gage indicates full. The oil pressure warning light works, the oil pressure gage works. The tach works some times. All of this is observed when cranking over the engine.

Aside from dropping back 15 yards and punting what do I do next. Have I missed something simple?

[Gordo2]

I would begin by confirming that you have your plug wires installed correctly. From there I would move to your distributor and confirm it's installed correctly.

The seemingly simple stuff tends to bite you in the butt...


Good luck, Gordo

[porscheboy1]

Thanks Gordo. I have done that but I will do it again. The SC dizzy turns counter clockwise and I have taken that into account. Anything else?