OK the motor is finally back in , and EVERYTHING is connected as far as vaccuum lines, wire harnesses etc.. But when I crank the car it just doesnt want to start. It DOES turn over tho. If I crank it long enough it will seam as if its gonna catch, but it just backfires and stops. The timing is correct, everything appears to be in working order. I did realize that the magnetic read switch on the exhaust cam sensor wasnt on (still connected to the factory cams). So I switched this to the new cam- still didnt start. Where do i look now?

is it backfiring from the intake? if so it sounds like you have some bent valves. when my tensioner pulley bolt broke and bent my valves it would do the same thing. do a compression test to make sure.

Could be a fuel problem.......

i sure hope its not bent valves- just had the machine shop do a total rebuild. If there are bent valves in my motor after $5000 then there's gonna be a problem . I'm kinda leaning towards fuel myself because the car has been sitting since last October with the same 1 or 2 gallons of gas in it. I figured that gas probably isn't much good anymore. Gonna try to add some fresh gas and some treatment stuff tomorrow, see if that might help. Ive turned the crank probably 50-60 revolutions and the arrows and marks on the cam gears are lining up everytime like they should, so I'm guessing the timing is correct.

Pust some fresh gas in your tank... If you have a service port on your fuel rail make sure you are getting some fuel pressure.

yeah im gonna try tomorrow after work...its 12_15 am here right now and my son is asleep, cant easily go to the gas station to get gas right now. I'll post tomorrow evening any updates

ok. ive put a little bit of fresh gas in the car, and poured in some of that iso heet stuff thats supposed to absorb water. Still no go. Ive tested it and it is getting a spark, and fuel. Not sure if the spark is as much as it *should* be, but its there. Now i'm wondering about the timing. The cam gears are AEM, and ive noticed some posts about the markings being off. Rigght now when the crank says its at top dead center, the cam gears are both right side up with the AEM logo at top. They are set dead at 0 degrees. is this correct???

I would check your timing, make sure all is good, make sure you have compression.

Then do what worked for me when my car wouldn't start after a bunch of head work and head gasket stuff... redo a handfull of little things that shouldn't make any difference and turn the key ( I swear to this day I'm not sure why it fired up).



15.9 @ 86.7mph

Smooth idle? We don't need no stinking smooth idle.

Mods List:
http://highlander.dsmpower.com/sig.htm

its gota be the timing. I noticed after close inspection that i believe the machine shop installed one of my cam gears 180 degrees out of time. I have the AEM gears and the logo on both are at the top when crank is TDC. SHouldnt one be at the top and one be at the bottom? If so, which is which???

There should be timing marks on the gears that line up together between the 2 gears. If you have the stock cam gears, you can use those as a reference as to where the aem timing marks should be at.

If you have a cam 180 degrees out of time you will probably have some bent valves now. do a compression check. If you have one or more cylinders building no compression you have some bent valves, and will have to pull the head back off and go kill someone at the machine shop, but its been my experience that machine shops don't like to accept responsibility for shit like that. Good luck.

No a cam 180 degrees off should be fine (as far as damage goes), I wouldn't worry about bent valves, some here have done it before and not had a problem. The inake and exhaust cam now open almost together, so there is little or no compression.

But you do need to get it retimed.



15.9 @ 86.7mph

Smooth idle? We don't need no stinking smooth idle.

Mods List:
http://highlander.dsmpower.com/sig.htm

thx guys. I went to the dealership today just to pick their brains about the timing. Sure enough one of the gears is 180 degrees off. Now i just gotta find out wich cuz the washers on the cam bolts cover up the dowel that I need to see. Not a big problem tho.