I just did a cam swap on my 318, and I'm getting no love on start up. It barely runs for 3 seconds at a time. It actually behaves like the one time long ago my timing chain slipped on me, so my hunch is that the cam is out of synch. Facts to know:
I installed the timing gear dot to dot. Standard key, no offset. I did not degree the cam. Cyl #1 at TDC. I realize that this will be TDC ignition stroke for #6. (Correct?) Timing gear and chain had about 3,000 miles, so basically new.
I used a torque wrench throughout. With the build complete, I hand-rotated the crank once or twice to make sure everything spun, no problems detected.
On fireup, I made sure the rotor was at #6 while crank was at TDC. I got some putter-putter, but no real firing, played with a few timing settings, no love. So I second guessed myself and reset the distributor 180 off. This time there was immediate fire, yes, outside the carb, so I knew I had it right the first time.
I reset the distributor back to normal, and this time I got a little bit of firing...super low rpms, but it just wouldn't open up, even though I swept the dizzy through its entire range. Next, I reasoned my way through a reset of the intermediate shaft, thinking that I could sweep the dizzy through a different range of degrees, if you follow. (I'll add as an aside that it seems curious that we never talk about correctly referencing the slot for the distributor as part of an initial setup, maybe I'm thinking too hard).
Carb and ignition worked fine before, newer Holley 600 is confirmed to be flowing.
I have no reason to believe the stock balancer has rotated. Timing was fine on my last build of this same motor a few years ago.
I've done this job twice with success, I'm no expert but I'm a bit baffled as to where I went wrong.
Any thoughts appriciated.