'Cause waking up is hard to do... Starting after 18 months

[Matt Wilson]

I am in the middle of a stock-ish restoration and am at the stage where I thought I had better wake up the engine.

The engine has roughly 5,000 miles on it. It is a 1915cc but mostly stock everything else. Electronic ignition.

The engine sat for about a year and a half inside, covered up. I left the oil in.

I took all tins off and cleaned and painted. The engine is now in the car.

Here's my situation:

Changed the oil. Castrol HD 30 and 1/2 qt MMO. I since took out 1 qt of total oil and put in 1 qt. fresh Castrol HD 30.

I put a little MMO in the gas too, probably too much. I have since changed to clean gas.

The timing is set, the valves are set, the carb is set (as it never changed from being run 18 months ago)

I have confirmed getting spark at all 4 plugs.

The fuel line is not hooked up and I ran a line to a gas can. I also poured a little fuel in the carb, filling up the float bowl.

I have tried starting fluid.

Engine will not start or even hesitate.

I pulled all 4 plugs and they were fouled. I gently cleaned and checked gaps. The I anti-seized and put back in.

There are flames snapping and popping out of the muffler and the carburetor constantly is sneezing, leaving a wet, black sooty mess on the inside of the carb throat.

What am I doing wrong?

I have compression, spark at the right time, fuel and oil.

Please help!

[sturgeongeneral]

Vacuum leak from when tins were removed or 180 degrees out of time.
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[keifernet]

I'm not liking the looks of that distributor clamp... is that a new addition? Looks like it might be holding the distributor up too high? Odd to me anyway.

Carb's that sit for 18 months don't always like to run either and snapping back is a sign they are not getting/mixing/metering the fuel properly at all.

[JCQuick]

it sounds like a dist 180 out or just a wire crossed

[Matt Wilson]

The engine ran with this clamp. It is not new.

Regarding vac leaks from tins, I am not sure what you mean as the tins don't seal the intake. The gaskets are all new, as the engine was assembled a few weeks ago.

I will check if the dizzy is out of time, but the distributor was never moved/removed.

I will also check the distributor wires are all connected to the correct spark plugs.

A mechanic told me that I might want to re-torque the heads. What is the torque setting? I don't see any leakage or "powder burns" indicating leaks (where I can see), but might be worth a double check.

[Matt Wilson]

Just found out that a friend was playing a trick on me. The wires were switched on both sides.

Oh well. runs now. The MMO really scrubbed the engine while I was trying to start it I suppose.

Thanks for your help guys, I knew it was something stupid like that. Should have double checked it myself.

[padex]

simple fix shoot the friend