I replaced the riser gasket with a restricted mercury gasket but it made no change in the way it was running. I pulled the distributor and advanced it one tooth and it ran somewhat better but it still isnt right. I'll get the timing light back on it as soon as I can borrow one again. I'm also going to pull the plugs out and see what they look like.

Another thing that comes to mind. I left the carb on the intake when I pulled it, and had to lay it on its side to clean the gasket surfaces. Could that have caused a fuel delivery issue?

Serial comes back as a 1994 350 magnum, I'd double check your distributor installation and double check the intake gasket. And for sure get the correct riser to manifold gasket

I've already replaced the riser gasket with the correct one. Did that this morning.

I will almost guarantee that your entire issue is timing related. Moving the distributor a tooth has the same effect as as spinning the distributor.

Youy need to get cylinder #1 to TDC. The timing mark on the balancer will be at the 0 mark on the harmonic balancer. Being at 0 on the harmonic balancer does not guarantee you have #1 at TDC. The balancer goes around twice for every engine revolution and it could be on #6 TDC instead of #1 TDC.
PULL OFF THE COIL WIRE BEFORE DOING THIS!!!!
You have to pull the #1 spark plug, have someone else bump the engine and put your finger over the #1 plug hole and feel for compression. Then reinstall the distributor so that the rotor is pointed to the #1 cylinder position on the dist cap. Reconnect coil wire and set timing with a timing light.

Or I could pull the valve cover off an put it on 0 after the #1 intake valve closes, correct?

look... do yourself a favor and start over again... this is going to be one of 2 things... either you screwed up the timing /firing order or you screwed up an intake gasket. so calmly and dispassionately figure out which one it is...

assume you know nothing at all ... no short cuts.

put the motor on the tdc mark on # 1 firing... take the distributor out and put it back in so that the rotor points to the number one pole.

get a picture of the firing order and put it in front of you

put number one wire on number 1 plug and work your way around... pretend you have never done it before and that you don't know where anything was before... just make sure it is correct now.

make sure you know which way the rotor turns... and know that turning the distributer the other way advances it.

now... find the instructions somewhere that tells you what to jump for that particular ignition and follow them and time the motor using a simple, no advance llight.

no shortcuts... just do it simple and directly by the numbers. when you are done, then the timing and firing order are correct... no more guesswork. no timing it by ear or gee i moved it a tooth and nothing happened" you KNOW that was either it or not.

if it was you are home free. if not, take the intake manifiold off again and find out what went wrong. don't waste time trying to talk yourself out of it.... i don't care how much vacuum it has...

it ran before you " fixed it" now it doesn't... so go back and find out what you did wrong... no shame in that. everyone has done it. the only mistake you are making is not focusing and are trying for the magic bean fix.

there are no magic bean fixes.

I agree with griff and steve, START OVER from TDC

As Steve said...it is very easy to get set up on No 6 as opposed to No 1...I have done it and I'm sure many people on this forum have. There is no shame in doing this..it happens. The engine will run but the firing order is 180 deg out.

Get that timing mark dead balls on with No 1 at TDC. You can double check by looking at the rocker arms for No 1...both valves will be closed.

Did you also check for a vacuum leak with WD 40? Again...18' og vacuum doesn't tell you any thing. With a stock cam you could be pulling as much as 21" with everything dialed in.

Get yourself a good timing light with an adjustment knob...you will need it to set the timing properly...32 deg advanced at 3000~3200 RPM total advance. Don't depend on a static number of 8~to 19 deg BTDC to be accurate.

Good luck with this.

I'll start over with the timing, but I'm kinda stumped on how it could get out of time. I marked the distributor and the rotor before I removed it. The engine never moved and when I went back together with it, everything lined up with the marks exactly the way it came out. And I shot it with a Mac timing light; the timing mark on the dampner was hitting on 8* like it should have. I'll stop chasing my tail and start over. Thanks for the help guys. I appreciate it.

180 out on dist,is it backfireing

no backfiring. fires up as soon as I hit the key, just runs like doo doo

as i said it sounds very lazy like timing is way off .just for the hell of it turn the dist ccw and see if it wakes up .who knows maybe the balancer moved - timing lights junk ect gotta try something

i had the exact same problem with a 5.7 thunderbolt system. turned out to be a bad connection on the ground wire coming from the thunderbolt module.

check all your points of ground with a volt meter.

exact same symptoms i had.

I'm just gonna start all over with the timing and then I'll go from there.

dude im tellin ya....the black ground layin up there looks EXACTLY like the one that gave me days of trouble.....hook it up and see if it fixes it.....

Thats the only ground not in use, and according to my wiring diagram, its for an electric choke as mentioned earlier.

http://www.selocmarine.com/content/m.../32069w148.pdf

ok.

have you traced it to see where it goes?

i only ask because this is EXACTLY wht my buds boat did when we installe dhis new engine. ran it on the engine test stand and it ran fne. installe dit and it sounded just like yours. nothing change dit. reset timing. changed plugs. wires. fuel source. etc.....

a volt meter will be you best friend in this case. if you eliminate the possible causes...it only leaves the impossible....however unlikely they may seem.

i would try everything i could before you start over.

at any rate...find the wire im tlking about...its a black wire with a ring terminal on it...it comes from the thunderbolt module and grounds to the riser or intake...or any other good ground.

check the quality of the ground if it is indeed grounded. then chack all of your connections....both in correctness and the quality of said connections.

I am a Merchant Marine Engineer and although diesels are my speciality I do know engines..we have a simple saying out here if something isnt operating correctly..'what was the last thing that was worked on?' I agree with 2ton..what does it hurt to look into that ground wire? My father always taught me growing up working on cars and boats alike..start with the simplest solution and work deeper from there..its possible that ground wire got disconnected when you were working on the engine..trace it..verify it..try it

Sounds like the distributor is 180* out. Like mentioned before, pul the #1 plug and verify that the dizzy is set correctly. @ 180 out it will run, but barely. Also double check the firing order, 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2. 90% of the time it is something simple.

It's not in the timing. I put #1 on TDC and reset the distributor. Still running the same.

What is to total advance at 3000 RPM?

Ground wire!!!!!

+1

If it is TBIV you have to hook up that black ground wire. Stick it under the bolt that holds the ignition module to the riser. That's where mine is

Mine has the module on the back of the distributor. It's not on the port riser.

The reason I keep asking about total timing is that I think you might have accidentally shorted the module...you might be in "limp home" mode and the engine will not rev past 2000 rpm. This is exactly what happens when you loose a ground on TBIV.

This is a guess...but I think there might be something going on with the module.

it will rev past 2k no problem. its just kinda rough lol

hey mag what part of ky are you in ?

Central KY. An hour south of Lexington.

if you dont get it figured out and dont mind trucking it up here i can give ya a hand one day. i have timing light and about anything else here if that helps ya .... im in taylorsville ky 40071 right by the lake check and make sure all your wires are getting spark down all you need is a spare spark plug lay it on valve covers have some one crank and watch it... also wouldnt hurt to pull all your plugs and see what they look like... if they look uniform wouldnt hurt to take a quick compression test while there out.. i know you havent messed with any of this other than the intake and dist.. have to start at the beging and work your way to the problem ..

No such thing as limp mode on a TB IV. 99% of the time if the module goes bad, there is just no spark. The other 1% it just does not advance.

It could be anything in that mess of wiring. That ground wire laying on the plug wire might even be causing an arc or short. Maybe removing the dist cap caused a plug wire to crack. There are a dozen maybe's and if its not timing, then all the ignition wiring will need to be gone through.

I had a new rotor that wouldn't tighten square one time because of rust in the peg holes and a cap that wouldn't because of plastic flash.
Has anybody mentioned the ground wire yet?:lolhit:

Hey, could be the ground wire.

i once was working on a outside sales guy company truck he wanted a tune up truck ran decent had a hole size of a dime in the dist cap ac delco part.. i replaced it with plugs wires and new cap and rotor of some generic part supplier the new cap made the truck miss and run like crap put the old cap back on and would run fine..lol new cap didnt have any problem you could see what so ever .. just goes to show..what can happen

Did you get this running properly? If so, what turned out to be the issue?

So what ever happened here, must have figured it out by now.