Thread: new cam-wont fire

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this is a ford 390 with non adjustable rockers.Hydraulic cam. Plug wires checked out. Both valves are closed at #1 cylinder. piston pushed out air on stroke and rotor pointing at #1 terminal inside cap.Im starting to freak a little.When i installed cam i lined up cam and crank gear marks as described. New gears and chain. could it have skipped? maybe i need to advance timing more. I hate to keep spinning motor blindly.

When I did mine (SBF) I brought it to #1 compression turning it with a breaker bar, finger in the #1 plug hole (passenger side, front plug) to verify compression and stopped it with my timing mark at 10 degrees BTDC. Then I checked the rotor alignment and adjusted the distributor to point rotor centerline at my #1 mark on the distributor housing. You can still be off by some amount of rotor phase angle in your distributor, but not more than the width of your rotor electrode. That's how I determined I was a tooth off on my distributor, and it worked for me. Just to be sure, here's a link showing cylinder numbers and distributor rotation for the FE.
http://boxwrench.net/specs/ford_352-428.htm