Help before i put a hammer threw the engine lol

right as some will know i have just had the head gasket done on my 1990 1.8carb auto cab.

its now back together and timed up, but now the engine struggles to turn over. which in turn is killing the battery

I timed it up so the bottom marks line up on the inter shaft and crank pulley, and the cam "o/t" mark lines up with the "o/t" mark on the timing cover.

turned it over by hand to make sure nothing hit and then turned over by key and all was fine. but now the plugs are in and the compression is there, it struggles to turn over and will not start    

any help will be gratefully recieved before i end up doing summit i regret to teh engine lol

Sounds like overadvanced ignition timing, or flat battery. I'm going to assume you made sure the battery is fully charged, for a first start after engine work???

yeah i charged the battery over night.

I thought it was timing but just to check, i have lined the timing marks up properly as menioned above haven't i ???

just previous to the head gasket going, i had a garage mess around with my timing as i was getting pre ignition, so am i right in saying i have to move the dizzy back now, is there any marks on the dizzy to where it should be set??

To set up your timing you want both the lobes on the cam pointing up at the same angle on No1, the TDC mark on the flywheel should line up with the pointer, the dot on the cam wheel should line up with the cylinder head flange (front), and the centre of the rotor arm should line up with the mark on the body of the distributor. Once running you will need to set the timing with a strobe. Hope this helps.

Try turning the dizzy slightly as you crank it over , it sounds to me you have the belt out a few teeth on the intermediate shaft , you should re check this .  
[the bit that drives the dizzy]


   :dontknow:

right i have rechecked the timing marks and they are all ok, the pointer on flywheel,the rotor arm middle off line and the lobes and marks on cam are all ok, yet even after playing with the dizzy, i still can't get this bloody engine turning over freely enough to start, starting to get annoyed now and getting closer to scrapping the bloody thing        

WELL its started but now ticks over at 2500 and seems to have no guts when you rev it. i have moved the dizzy slighty to sort it but when the revs are low it doesn't re start and when its just over 1000 it has pre ignition. wish i just paid a bloody garage to do it now          

Still sounds like the timing is out to me. Take pics of all your marks so that we can have a look.

i'll pop out in a bit and will take photos

cheers

below are the pics


rotor timing marks!



flywheel



cam

i have just been back outside and now it seems to tick over low but spit fuel every now and then outta the carb??? wish this engine would make its mind up lol

What mark are you taking on the intermidate shaft?

the dizzy mark which in turn lines up (the dot) with crank wheel mark as i have been told to do lol

Your timing marks look OK, the only other thing I can think of is the plug leads are somehow wrong. Obviously the arm should point at No1 when it's lined up with the mark and you just count 1, 3 ,4, 2 in the direction of rotation. I don't suppose you are anywhere near Falmouth.

Got the plug leads on correctly?

check the cam belt isnt to tight to start with you should be able to twist it sligtly each way

time up the engine take cap of and check the rotor arm is pointing to number 1 lead trace the lead back to the plug closest to the cambelt

if all that is ok then do a compression test did you get the head skimmed? just wondering if its been skimmed to far causing major compression over kill :wink: