Smoke out of carb

[purpl67cuda]

I'm turning over my 318 rebuilt as a 349 for the first time, not having any luck getting it started yet. After a few of cranks a puff of smoke blew out the carb. Tried another time and another puff of smoke. Now I'll admit I haven't messed around with too many carbureted vehicles, but something seems amiss... any one have some advice?

[BigBlockDude]

Your timing is way off. Make sure when its at TDC in the No. 1 cylinder compression stroke, the rotor is pointing to No. 1 on the distributor. Dont crank it too much without getting it running, its not good for a new cam.

[Dennis Jokela]

If you lined up the dots on the cam and crank sprockets. and then installed the dist. your timing is 180 degrees off.

lift the dist, and rotate the rotor 180 degrees.

Or the best way would be to rotate the engine to TDC on number one cyl. Install the dist with the rotor pointing to the number one terminal on the cap.

Dennis Jokela

[purpl67cuda]

I was thinking I had it 180 deg off also, but then I pulled the valve cover and (I think) realigned the engine to #1 TDC this morning. In the pic both rockers are loose, so it seems that both valves on #1 are closed, and the distrib is pointing at #1.

If I spin the engine so that the distrib is pointing 180 deg away from #1, then the exhast valve is clearly open.

So I think it is set up to fire correctly?

[perfmachst]

hello, one accurate method is, roll or crank slowly with your thumb stuck in #1 spark plug hole, you will feel pressure against it. when you do, stop.check to see where the timing mark is, then roll motor up to TDC, this is firing #1, now reset dist to #1 plug wire. I assume the valves are lashed correctly??

[purpl67cuda]

I finally had time today to troubleshoot this today... after I spent a couple of hours turning the engine by hand, checking firing order, etc, and have no luck finding any problem, I go to put the distibutor cap back on and realize that I had installed the plug wires on the distributor off by 1 post. One of those moments when you just shake your head and wonder how you made that mistake...

Fired up on the first crank after all that!

[dodger1]

Easy mistake to make - I have the t-shirt. Glad you got it sorted out.