No start after new head gasket

[Charles Musick]

Ok, i'm pulling my hair out here. After new head gaskets, valve job, my truck won't start.
I lined up all the chain's marks with crank and cams marks. I had #1 TDC. This may be a stupid question, but does it matter if the piston is on intake stroke or exhaust stroke. I feel like I'm missing something here. here's the process I used; I put #1 piston TDC checked before I put head on. I also checked to make sure the Crank's mark was at 6:00- I put the chain on making sure the discolored links were on the marks on both cam and crank. I had to turn the cam slightly in order to make it align.

 

[docraymund]

Do you have spark?

 

[Bedrck47]

Ok, i'm pulling my hair out here. After new head gaskets, valve job, my truck won't start.
This may be a stupid question, but does it matter if the piston is on intake stroke or exhaust stroke./QUOTE]

Yes it does

 

[Charles Musick]

Do you have spark?

It was late last night so didn't checked for spark. The fuel rail had pressure. Checking for spark today.

Bedrck, How can I tell if the piston is on the correct stroke. I knew it did in my head , just couldn't get my mind to understand. Ha. 180 out right. I haven't worked on something like this in a long long time, and when I did they had a distributor. much easier.

.

Yes I moved the crank without the heads on. I cleaned the tops of the pistons.

 

[Charles Musick]

OK I'm thinking, If I had the crank and cam marks in the correct position (crank at 6:00 and cams at about 11:00 and 1:00) then the #1 should be on compression, correct? Then on the exhaust stroke they will not line up. The only time they line up would be on compression stroke. I hope this is correct.

 

[Bedrck47]

Charles

Most important is to know the year of your expy and also what engine is in the expy.

Sending you a conversation check your in box

 

[stamp11127]

As long as the correct cylinder is at tdc there isn't an intake or exhaust stroke difference until the cam timing comes into play.
Make sure the front cylinder - passenger side is at tdc when installing the chains - and the cams are in the correct possition.
If you used the driver side front cyl as #1 run a compression check on any cylinder. Hopefully the valves aren't bent.

 

[Charles Musick]

Charles

Most important is to know the year of your expy and also what engine is in the expy.

Sending you a conversation check your in box

Sorry it's a 99 5.4 2v pi intake. Thank you

 

[Charles Musick]

As long as the correct cylinder is at tdc there isn't an intake or exhaust stroke difference until the cam timing comes into play.
Make sure the front cylinder - passenger side is at tdc when installing the chains - and the cams are in the correct possition.
If you used the driver side front cyl as #1 run a compression check on any cylinder. Hopefully the valves aren't bent.

Thank you, I used right side front #1. I turned crank by hand a to make sure nothing was hitting.

 

[stamp11127]

Now you would check for fuel & spark. Fuel is the easiest to check - pressure needs to be @35 psi with key on engine off.

 

[1955moose]

How's the motor sound when you crank it? If you screwed up, your engine would pop, or sound strange. Try the simple stuff, hook up a hei spark tester on any coil, spark yes, move to fuel, spray a shot of starter fluid in throttle body. Even if your off 1 tooth you will run, albeit poorly, but should fire off. If you matched up bright links on chain, with proper cam positions, you should be a go. Visually seeing #1 piston at tdc doesn't get any better. Passenger front piston, cams at proper spots, their is no intake/ compression stroke, like Stamp said. Check the fuel/ spark, it's probably one of those.


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[Charles Musick]

Now you would check for fuel & spark. Fuel is the easiest to check - pressure needs to be @35 psi with key on engine off.

How's the motor sound when you crank it? If you screwed up, your engine would pop, or sound strange. Try the simple stuff, hook up a hei spark tester on any coil, spark yes, move to fuel, spray a shot of starter fluid in throttle body. Even if your off 1 tooth you will run, albeit poorly, but should fire off. If you matched up bright links on chain, with proper cam positions, you should be a go. Visually seeing #1 piston at tdc doesn't get any better. Passenger front piston, cams at proper spots, their is no intake/ compression stroke, like Stamp said. Check the fuel/ spark, it's probably one of those.


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Thank you. Moose I was thinking the same thing. It turned pretty easy when I cranked. I also agree with the simple first approach. I Fixed -Low on fuel, crankshaft position sensor was unhooked, and a weak battery. I'm not sure the exact problem but, after I fixed these it started right up. I didn't run it long because I still don't have the manifolds on. (broken bolts on 1 and I can't get the vac pipe nuts loose on the drivers side.

I'm thinking about doing a post,"my challenges with a head gasket" not a full blown how-to; just the areas where I had problems that other youtubers, blogs, and chilton forgot to mention. ie like EVERYONE on you tube said to cut the manifold flange bolts. I had to because they stripped, but the man bolts came out of the head A LOT easier that I thought they would. I wish I had just removed them instead of messing with the flange bolts. Now its go to machine shop to remove the bolts. I've blasted and heated Nada...

 

[1955moose]

Ah glad to hear. The crankshaft position sensor is the #1 culprit on these twin cam motors. Picture it as the pick up coil/ points on earlier engines. So much is depending on that one part. Again glad you figured it out. Bet you wanted to open a beer after you heard it run!


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[stamp11127]

The crank sensor was the main culprit that kept it from starting. The ecm uses the signal for TDC on #1 cylinder to calculate when to fire the plugs and inject fuel for each of the cylinders. Along with input from the cam sensor(s) the ecm determines which stroke the pistons are on.