falconbrother

Even if you could see the valves it won't tell you if they are sealing/the condition of the valve seats. You can't tell by looking, even if you had the head in your hands..unless the valve damage was severe. The only way to test it that I'm aware of is a compression test. Or, pull the head and re-seat the valves, which may not be necessary. And yes, the plug and the valves are at the top of the cylinder. Go to Auto Zone and borrow a compression tester. They loan tools, as does all the big chains do I think.

V12TT

I wish I can do a compression test right now but I can't until the old gasket can be removed off the intake manifold so I can put everything back together.
If you can't see damages valve then you should expect to see low compression and not zero compression right?
The rod from the top of the head looks ok to me. Same with cylinder and piston so things look promising...

V12TT

Cranked but didn't turned over.
I put everything back together and couldn't get the rig to start. On the distributor, I had the marks aligned and the slot looked to be the at the same position as the distributor
At that position, the point gap is pointed to 4:30 o'clock position. When the distributor seat fully, the point gap pointed to 6:00 o'clock position. Is that right?
Here's how I aligned the Top Dead Center. Am I off by 180 degree?

falconbrother

On compression, you want to check all the cylinders. They need to pretty much be close in numbers. If you have one that's way off you know that's your bad one. None of them will be exactly the same but they need to be within like, 6% of each other. When testing just leave all the plugs out. You're looking to have each cylinder act like an air compressor and pressure up the gauge. If one has a leak it won't be able to do that. You do it with the starter, don't let the engine start, hence pull all the plugs.

For the no start. It could be that the distributor is 180 off. Do you have a manual? When in doubt put everything at the alignment marks and start from there. Plug a spark plug in, ground it, and make sure you're getting spark. If so then it's just a matter of ensuring that wire positions are right and the distributor is in right. If you had a massive intake leak it might not want to start as well. If you replaced the gaskets -n- such it's probably not that. Even with a moderate leak it could conceivably start but, it would run like crap. I once put a carb on a Harley sportster and got the boot screwed up. At low RPMs it would run but, really bad. At high RPMs it ran fine. A small leak in the intake can cause hesitations and such but, it should start. Go back to the basics, fuel/air and spark. Once you know you have those it's an issue of compression and timing.

If you get frustrated walk away for a while. Then come back fresh and start from the beginning. You got this!

falconbrother

V12TT

Thank you. I got frustrated with the no start issue so I'm taking a break today.
I just verified that I'm at TDC by sticking a camera into plug #1 and record the motion of the piston. I can see moments of the piston as I moved the harmonic balancer. Piston come up and down in the video just like a gauge would sense pressure and vacuum so I'm very sure that I nailed the TDC.
Now I need to remove the distributor again to see if that's off by 180. I hoped that it is...

falconbrother

I think there's a good chance that you have the distributor off. It's easy to do.

V12TT

I still can't get it to turn over I'm not sure why.
The TDC is correct Camera View
Distributor aligned
Marked position aligned

V12TT

I haven't touched the rig until today. I believe I got the TDC correctly with the compression gauge but I'm so lost on distributor install.
Here's what I did:
1. I got #8 aligned with #6Attachment 10079
2. In that position, the marks aligned like the following Attachment 10080
3. After the distributor fully inserted, I got this position which is wrongAttachment 10081
I need it to point to #8 on the distributor cap and it should point toward cylinder #1 at 5o'clock position such as this position Attachment 10082
Does this mean I damaged the distributor?

V12TT

Nevermind. I got the answer.
Pump shaft was off and it was impossible for me to adjust the pump shaft with a screwdriver. This was mentioned on a few you tube video too but I can't seem to be able to place the screwdriver head on the pump shaft.
I went to O'reiily and spoke to a few guys. One guy knows a trick and I hope that it will help someone here:
1. Move the harmonics balancer off TDC until the distributor cap sits in the correct positionAttachment 10083
2. Lock the distributor down.
3. Move the harmonics balancer to TDC.
4. Loosen up the distributor and move the camshaft to the final position.

I turned the key and it runs.
The violent shaking issue was gone and all 8 cylinders have good compression. There's nothing wrong with the engine. The shaking issue was from a disconnected wire.
This is the case of a dishonest Indy shop and a lousy diagnostic job at the dealer.