I bought a malibu that came with a 350 with stock big chamber iron heads and victor junior intake. Story goes it was in a s-10 drag truck then bought and put and put in the malibu and not finished. I got the car and attempting to get it running. The cam is a custom grind 256 in/272 ex @.050 .390in/ .410ex lift 106 lobe step. I had the valve cover off and watched the valves to find tdc on #1 to set the distributor and when I attempt to start it it will pop through the carb and exhaust like the the distributor is 180 off but when you turn it 180 it's way worse. I called lunati and they said that grind needs 11.5-1 compression and I suspect this motor is bone stock with dished pistons. So my question is if this motor is only 8-1 compression would this be a possible cause and would bad gas have a factor? It's solid lift and I loosened up the lash, double checked the plug wires and even double checked the timing gear marks. I'm hoping I overlooked something dumb but I'm open for ideas. Thanks
Sounds like you're getting gas. Make sure it is decent as Vinnie said.
Take a hard look at the distributor cap and rotor - no corrosion. Check the wires and correct firing order.
Verify your timing mark is close (within 4 degrees), hookup the timing light and get a remote starter or a helper to crank it over and move the dizzy to 5-10 degrees BTDC.
Make sure the balancer you're using has just a single mark on it.
After triple checking everything today I finally found my issue. I discovered that I managed to put the plug wire on going the wrong direction around the distributor. I switched the firing order to going around clockwise and it runs like a beast now. Thanks to those who gave input. Your never to experienced to make mistakes will be a new motto of mine.
Been there and done that with making stupid mistakes due to ....? Glad to here it is running properly.
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