No, I never did. It may come to that shortly though.

I was thinking about it last night and I realized, while looking at the timing directions again, that I wasn't verifying that all the marks line up *at the same time*. Because I was doing this with the valve covers still on I was marking the chain and rotating it to check. This works but it is actually possible that the one side is 180 degrees out.

What I also realized is that the cam on the driver side has a position sensor and so it probably doesn't matter whether that side is 180 degrees out from the crank or not, it will fire on #1 top from that sensor. The other side however is just expected to be in sync. Pretty neat design vs the non-computer ones where you have to make sure the cam is timed with the distributor and the crank.

I was also reading that some people say there is a limp mode where it will only fire on 4 cylinders. So I'm going to just try pulling the power for a while and reset it first.

Now I'm into that discouraged but bloody determined to make it work phase.. It WILL WORK DARNIT!

 

Your frustration is causing you to have a laps in judgment. At a 180 degrees out, the spark will fire when the piston is at the bottom of the cylinder instead of the top.

Do the compression test, even if it's just the front one or two cylinders. Just so you know if you're getting compression or not.

 

You are right about frustration being a problem, I think it was the other day while working on it. I'm taking a break now to reflect and gain more insight.

Regarding being 180 degrees out, I think it would fire at the top of the exhaust stroke.

A compression test is a good idea, but at 180 degrees out it could still read good compression, just that the firing would occur at the top of the exhaust stroke instead of top of intake stroke.

That said a compression test is a hell of a lot easier than tearing that front cover off yet again.. heh, and would tell me the engine is basically functioning ok.

I may have time to look at it again tomorrow. Thanks guys!

 

Well, that was it.. it was 180 degrees out on the passenger cam. Hard to believe I messed it up that bad but there you have it. It's all back together now and running quite well. Has a little shake to it but it's obviously in dire need of plugs which are now on order.

Thanks for all the help guys! It's much appreciated!

EDIT: The funny part is I'm way too good at this.. I had it all apart, timed and back together again in under 2 hours. Another hour of fan, shroud, cleanup etc and it was ready to go. heh.

 

YOU ARE NOW A CERTIFIED DIYER. Congratulations on a job well done on an engine that can be difficult at times.
I hope you change over to an electic fan in the near future as that will provide a lot more room in front of the engine. I had to change my waterpump tonight and if I still had that big clunky and heavy fan on my Navigator I would be working on it still. Also the water pump would have failed completely and put the fan into the radiator. I changed mine to an electic dual fan system adapted from a V8 Continental and it works great.

 

Huh.. I've been under the impression that electric fans just can't move the volume of air that these can for the large engines. Works fine for smaller ones but the big engines need 20+ hp of cooling at times.. that was mostly around the diesels though.

That miss I had turned out to be a loose injector connector. Was trying to figure out what cylinder it was by pulling injectors again and found one was loose. Plugged it in and it's all good! Runs real nice now even with the crappy plugs. Sure has lots of power, it'll be great for towing.

Now to fix all the little issues.. door locks are messed up, rear door won't close etc.