Hey all,

Been a while since I posted on here. All i can say, is this truck can take a damn beating. Ended up needing intake manifold gaskets for about 3 months, after I had enough of adding a gallon of water every time I had to drive it. I finally got around to doing them yesterday. I got them all done, but now i'm running into an issue where the truck will crank and crank and crank but not start. I'm pretty sure that Its something distributor related (read that even 1 degree off can cause a no-start in the vortec's) But just looking to see if anyone else has a second opinion? I could swear I had it on correctly, but since I have been cranking it over, if it was off by any amount I have to reset the timing (once i can get the damn seized boot off the #1 plug) and go from there. Anyone care to help me out?

Below are some pics of what the gasket and mani looked like when I yanked it.


The site where the gasket failed, which was behind the alternator

20130516_163644 by talon 2g, on Flickr

Partially cleaned..

20130516_165115 by talon 2g, on Flickr


Fully cleaned... she came out beautiful!

20130516_170003 by talon 2g, on Flickr

 

Sounds like the distributor is in a bit off-the first time I did that job the dist slipped right in and all seemed well,until I went to start it when the engine was warm,very easy to get them in a tad off...

 

yea, i just got cylinder 1 free so i can get it to TDC and then reset timing on the dist. Kind of a pain in the *** where they put cylinder 1 near all those steel Power steering lines.. lol

 

Ok guys well after a few days of not getting very far, I've come to the conclusion that I put my distributor in a tooth or two off. So now I am trying to correct the issue (it just kept cranking and cranking, but no start) But I want to make sure I do the process right.
So here is what I have so far...

-Pull fan and fan clutch (and shroud)
- Use the two marks on the harmonic balancer behind the fan to line up and get Cylinder 1 to TDC.
- Once marks are lined up, re-set the distributor (still watching videos on how to do this)
- insert Distributor and bolt down once verifying the correct placement.

At this point once everything is back together, the truck should start up, shouldnt it?

What's also weird, is that if it is off by a tooth wouldnt it be throwing a CEL during start up? I have my scan tool plugged in during turn over and nothing comes up. Could it be that I have something else going on?

 

I've had mine be off a tooth or two and not trip the CEL. Make sure your distributor is pointing like this when it's set:



Also, make sure your harmonic balancer isn't doing something like this:

 

It gets lined up to the 6 and then I mark up the paint mark and the lower notch on the distributor gear, When i put it into the mating hole (rofl) it is like a tooth off in either direction. I then take it out and try moving the oil pump gear and do it again, still a tooth off. I've turned the damn thing in either direction about 1/2 a full turn and I still cant get it to line up. When i finally do get the marks right, the distributor wont sit flush with the intake manifold. Then to top it off I dropped the distributor mounting bolt somewhere behind the motor. Called it a day after that lol.

 

So im ready to try this again tomorrow. Any ideas on what size bolt it is that holds the Distributor down? I can at least try and find a bolt that will work while i'm at work tomorrow. Thanks guys!

 

Turns out the distributor was 90 degrees out of synch. $300 later, got the truck running again. Thanks for the 2 of you that responded.

Mods go ahead and lock this thread, or mark it resolved please. Thank you.