I have a 92 f250 with a 351w and i am finishing up my head job. Ive got everything together except for i cant get it to start. I think i dont have it timed right. From what i gather i have the TIFV ingition not the dura spark 11. I have lined my marks with the crank shaft which should be tdc for the #1 cylinder but im not sure what stroke its on. anyhow if i try to start it one way it pops when it cranks over. if i remove the distributor and turn the crank 360 to figuring ive got it on the wrong stroke it doesnt do anything but just turn over. Ive followed the book to a T and i have all the wires on right and the vain is always on the #1 on the distributor. I know their could be many things it could be such as one wire not on right or anything but im pretty confident of my work where i think it should start anyhow......leak?????? thats a differnt story.

 

If you have the distributor inserted correctly then it may just need to be advanced a little. I had to play with the distributor a bit on the 5.0 I just put in, too much advance and it was hard to crank over, not enough and it would just cycle but not catch. Start with #1 piston at TDC on the compression stroke and insert the distributor so the rotor points at the #1 post. Now rotate the distributor a little bit clockwise and try to start, if it only catches randomly rotate some more and try again.

 

If you have a helper, you can leave the distributor loose and move it while it's cranking. If it catches, then time it with your timing light.

From the way you described installing it, there's a 50/50 chance you have it installed 180* out. If you can't get it to start using that method, and if it's still popping, then do this:

Crawl under the truck and using a flashlight and a wire brush, find the timing marks on the balancer. If you can't see them, crank the engine over by hand with a breaker bar and a 15/16" socket until you can. Use the wire brush to clean the balancer. The marks are there. Mark the balancer at 10* BTDC with something easy to see. I used a bit of white-out tape. Crank the motor over (by hand) until the white mark is close to the timing bracket, which is at about 10 o'clock.

Now look at the distributor. If the rotor is pointing at the #1 terminal, take the distributor out, turn the engine over once until the timing mark is on the bracket again and re-install the distributor. If the rotor is not pointing at the #1 terminal, remove and reinstall the distributor so that it does.

Try the 'cranking while turning the distributor' thing again and it should fire right up.

This will work assuming you have everything else right, including the firing order.

 

hey thanks for the help. I was looking at the wrong mark. I was using a mark that looked like a keyway and i wire wheeled the damper and found timing marks. thanks for the help.