Having a bit of a fit trying to get my son's car running.

A bit of a refresh for those out of the loop.

Bought a car with a bad short block.
Replaced short block with good short block. Swapped everything over, new oil pump, water pump, starter, compression tested good, injectors not tested, everything wired correctly. The plugs are Motorcraft platnum, gapped at .050.

The new (used) shortblock came from an Explorer. I swapped the cam that was in it for an E-303.

My question is did they make a non HO E-303 cam?

The reason I ask is because I've pulled and reset the distributor 20 times and this thing runs for about 10 - 15 seconds at best,.. popping and burping through the intake with an occasional small pop or backfire out of the exhaust. I wired the cap HO style. I consider myself an old pro at dropping in distributors. I've done several hundred over the last 20 year or so. The way this thing acts if I were to guess is I either keep dropping it in a tooth off,.. or I have the cap wired wrong. If the cam is for a non-HO motor and I wired the cap HO how bad would it be off? I'm going to go over tomorrow and rewire the cap non-HO style and see what it does. I'm just curious,.. because at this point I am out of answers.

We took a few days off. Let my son and a friend of his loose in Orlando. Now that I have had some time to reflect,.. this is all I can come up with.

Hypothetically,.. if the cam is a non-HO E-303 (It is definitely an E-303,.. stamped clearly on the end of it) and it starts and runs after I rewire it for non-HO. Will this hurt anything? I cant see where it would. But I have to ask. Also,.. if its for non-HO,.. does that mean its a flat tappet cam? Will running roller lifters on a flat tappet cam hurt anything?

Thanks,

Hurst

 

There is only one E303 cam and it is for the HO firing order: 1 3 7 2 6 5 4 8..... You did put the wires on the dist in counter clockwise order, just asking.....

If you changed the order to non HO it wouldn't do anything but spit sputter and pop, kinda like your getting now.....

 

FRANK!!!!

OMFG,..

I wired it HO but I wired it clockwise,.. and I know the distributor spins counter clockwise.

I'm going to head over there right now and rewire the poor bastard.

I know better. Wow. I've been stewing on this all night,.. its 10am and I just woke up. I read this and it hits me like a Mack truck.

I owe you a beer or soda if you dont drink. Cant believe I did that.

brb in a bit with the results.

Hurst

 

^^^ I have done the same damn thing before!!! Frank to the rescue again!!

 

AND ITS ALIVE!!

Soon as I rewired it counter clockwsie,.. bamb,.. started right up on the first try.

Cam sounds pretty good. Has a little lope to it. Nothing crazy aggressive,.. but enough if he's sitting at a light the guy next to him might think he's faster than he really is.

As soon as the video is done on Youtube I'll post links.

Thanks again Frank!

Cant believe I goofed with something as stupid as this. And I know better. I didnt even have to reset the distributor. I had it in perfect. I'll set the timing tomorrow, finish up on the body work and hopefully get it in for paint sometime this week.

Now he's not sure what color to paint it. He likes gun metal metallic gray,.. but may decide on jet black. I'm personally pushing toward jet back,.. but he gets the final say so.

Thanks everybody.

Hurst

 

I was at ProFab when they was firing off the carbed LS with a distibutor in it. They had a MSD box to keep the LS coil set up and a 7531 box. Turned it over and over. Check lap top, this and that...I asked Jr...who wired it? "Bobby did", let's double check, everything was good. Double checked the phasing on the crank trigger, the air gap, swapped 7531 boxes... I asked if the rotation of the rotor was right...they looked at me like I was crazy...Jr say "I've been doing this shit for ever! I know which way they turn."..I said yep when the distibutor is in the back of the motor (LS moves it to the front)... blank stare, then pops the cap and bumps it over and sure as shit, rotor was turning backwards from what he's used to Fired right up!
Glad you got it worked out

 

Yep, I'm an old school Chevy guy. I have to constantly rethink when I am doing a Ford. What kills me is that I know what direction it turns. I primed the oil pump and set the drill to turn in the correct counter clockwise direction and made sure oil was squirting out of the rockers before I put the valve covers on. In the video there is a lot of smoke,.. thats from when I primed the engine, oil squirted all over the headers and I never cleaned it off.

Here is my son and his first car. Looking rough right now. But promise,.. by this time next week this car will be clean inside and out. We have all new door and window gaskets for it.

Video link:
YouTube - MOV02921.AVI

YouTube - MOV02922.AVI

Hurst

 

Looks like he's lost for words...priceless!

 

Good stuff!

 

very cool hurst glad you got it going