The Vehicle: 1998 Chevy Blazer, 4X4, 4DR, Automatic, EDI Distributor, Vin Code "W".

Here's what happened:
My blazer needed a radiator because the driver's side tank had a 4 in. crack in it. Ordered one, jacked up the blazer cause i couldn't get to the clip for the bottom tranny cooler line. put it in, checked for leaks at the radiator. Good!! Nothing leaks. Look under the truck, A small steady stream of coolant from inbetween the tranny and motor on the driver's side. Get a light and look. I can see coolant on the intake. I got the air hose and blew the water off. And surely enough i could see the coolant rise from inbetween the driver's side head and intake. I have a Haynes repair manual and i can work on a car, so i went to town on it. Put a new intake gasket set on it. Nice bead down the front and rear of the block then put the intake gaskets on. Everything went smoothly. Torqued intake down to spec. Then started the reassebly of everything else. Never did torque the upper plenum, egr, iac, and whatever else there was. I cranked over the engine after everthing was done. Truck took alittle bit to start. I thought maybe it was cause i had to take the fuel lines off. But then there it was, A cylinder #2 Missfire. No real big deal, but i was disappointed. It's got 125,000 on it with the stock plugs and wires. I figured it needed plugs, wires, cap, and rotor. Then the next day it was throwing a code Random Cylinder Missfire and was running like complete crap. Someone convinced me i had the distributor in there wrong. So i went and bought a cap and rotor, and put them on. Now the truck wants to start but just doesn't. I pulled the distributor and felt compression on number one cyliner then lined up the timing mark. Tried puting the distributor back in with the rotor pointing at the little number 6 on the dist. housing. It wouldn't fully seat down on the intake. Got a big flat head and tried turning the oil pump. Wouldn't turn, I'm not sure if i was on the right spot or not. I have a friend that is a mechanic so he is gonna come over and set the distributor in there right for me. I don't think i had it in there wrong in the first place cause it never threw the code "P1345". I guess what i'm askin for help on is what do you think was wrong before i took the distributor out cause i was convinced that it was in there wrong? Sorry for the long story but i didn't really wanna leave anything out, even though i did. "BY THE WAY, DO NOT USE GM DEXCOOL!!!!"

 

If I were you, I would go through everything with a fine toothed comb and torque them all down properly. If you do not, you can expect to have more problems down the line.

As far as getting your distributor back in properly, you will need to get the oil pump drive turned so that the distributor can drop down on. You may be getting caught on the cam gear if you cannot turn it. It can be difficult to get down in there right to turn it.

Has the cooling system ever been serviced??? Everyone is so quick to blame the coolant.

 

To get the gears to "mesh" just give the starter a bump and go from there. I think that is what I had to do when I took my dizzy out for the gasket job.

 

Bumping the starter would move the engine off of TDC on #1 cylinder. That may not exactly help...

 

If you get the dist. where it needs to be but the oil drive doesn't line up you can bump the engine over while someone holds the dist. down. The pump drive will line up and it will drop into place. Most of the time especially with a different dist. the pump drives doesn't always line up with the old one.

 

It is still easier, IMO, to rotate the pump shaft with a long screw driver than to possibly loose your reference to TDC #1.

 

here's what i've got so far, I bought brand new plugs, wires, cap, and rotor. Everything is Factory Replacement parts, i even bought the Delphi wires for it cause everything was stock and for haveing almost 130,000 on the odometer. They lasted awhile. Them 4 things alone cost me $150. I still need to get the distributor in there right, but i think i found my whole problem when i was inspecting my wires when i was putting the new ones on. The wires are black in color, which is the color they are new. All the wires on the passenger bank have the black plastic covers over them. Same with the coil wire. Well when i took the coil wire off, the plastic crap was melted in one spot and when i took the wire out of it, there was a spot in the wire that was white, and it had a bunch of small cracks in it. I bent the wire into a "U" and it basically split in 2. Once i get the distributor in right, i hope it'll be good to go. I'll keep you posted.

 

I had the same problem after I changed intake gasket......woulnt start. Thought it was timing, thought it was a missed wired. We knew it wasnt building fuel pressure afer a short while. It was a coinciendence...........fuel pump went bad. Im not sure if you test for fuel pressure, but I would start there.

 

oh it started up when i put it back together the first time, but like i said in the thread, i was pursuaded into believing that i had the dist. in wrong. Now i know it's in wrong. I highly doubt the fuel pump went out, cause when i bought the blazer a year ago, the fuel pump went out that same day. So it's basically brand new. Thanks for the thought though

 

Good news everyone, The blazer is runnin and runnin great. The Dissy was in wrong. I got ahold of a tore down dissy someone was using as an oil pump primer and i was able to turn the oil pump to get the dissy in where it needed to be. And the tune up helped it alot too. i'm thinkin that it had the miss after i put everything back together because of the coil wire. Not to mention i probably got some coolant on it too. But thanks to everyone for their suggestions and input. I try to help everyone out, and i'm thankful for the same think in return