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302 starting


88mudder

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i finially finished my 302 swap. Its a carbed engine. I cant get it to start, however. I got the rotor pointing to the number 1 spark plug. I made the number 1 piston so its all the way up. Wires are in correct order. When i crank it , it doesnt sound like it wants to fire. I messed around with the distributer by turning it, but nothing. If i give it some gas it will make a sputter and then shoot a flame up the carb. Anybody have any tips on how to get it to start?
 
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projectnitemare

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Sounds like you are still out of time. Pull the #1 plug and crank the engine by hand with your finger over the plug hole. Once you feel air use a screwdriver or something similar to feel the piston rise. Once you feel it stop, look at the timing pointer. You should be at or near 0* or TDC. Check the dist rotor and see if it is still pointing at #1. Try it again, if nothing check to make sure you have the correct firing order for your engine/cam combo. Are the plugs wet? Do the get good spark? Did you install a new cam? Those are the places to start.

Matt
 

skippy

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yeah,sounds like you might have the distributor 180 degrees off,follow projectnightmares advice and you should be good to go.don't ask how i know.:blush:
 

red85

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Do you have the firing order right? HO and 351 cams have a different firing order than the regular old 302's.
 

88mudder

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honestly i dont know if its an HO cam or not. Bought the engine off a friend and all he knows is its an e303. Ill try the 351 firing order to make sure. Ill also do what u said projectnitemare
 

Ranger5.0

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the E303 is an HO cam isnt it? it at least runs the HO fireing order. It does sound like you have things out of time, the flames supposed to go out the exaust, not up through the intake lol. Try to get the rotor vertical, rather then pointing it at the #1 cylinder. Get it straight up and down with the #1 at TDC compression, and it should bark to life. Also be sure its getting fuel.
 

88mudder

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whats the HO firing order? I thought it was just a 302 vs 351 order...never knew there was one for an HO.
 

88mudder

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1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8 got it! Ill try that first cuz its easy.
 

88mudder

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tried it really quick. It seemed to wanted to start up better. Still flames up the intake lol. I didnt mess with the rotor position tho, just switched the wires around. I am going to mess around with it more tomorrow and throughout the week.
 

red85

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Are you sure you've got the rotor set to #1 cylinder on the compression stroke? Also remember that the distributor turns counterclockwise in Ford Windsor based engingine
 

baddad457

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E303 uses the 351W F.O.
 

88mudder

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is there an easier way to tell the TDC? I noticed on my crank it said BTC then i found a deep groove line in the crank, what do these both mean? I dont have access to a timing light , trying to do it based on the crank groove line if that means anything.
 

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there is a compressuion and exhaust stroke. you will end up at 0 on either stroke. you're probably on the wrong one.
 

88mudder

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should the crank say 0 or TDC on it somewhere? All i saw was BTC, maybe i didnt look good enough.
 

88mudder

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alright well....its not starting because it has NO spark. The breaker points are breaking good. Tested the coil with a VM (volt meter) and it shows voltage. My dad and I really are stumped on this.

could using the wrong firing order cause a no spark condition? We only tried the 302 order, not the HO order.
 
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