Landseer

The difference between the dead and alive attempts to start car:

Cleaned battery ground strap + cleaned terminals on three sensors near the thermostat.

"Here's-to" 928 Rennlisters who have posted electrical troubleshooting tips, plus snippets of WSM, here over time. Thanks.


I also discovered a timing mistake. Looks like I may have installed my distributor on the wrong tooth. It has to be rotated CC to the end of its travel just to get the car chugging enough to register on the tach. Am assuming its a tooth or two off. (yes, I marked it at removal, but the car was not at TDC because I used a wrong set of gear mark highlights painted on the original cam gears -- didn't know to look to the back of the gear for the notches when I started this journey 10 weeks ago)

Should I align the center of the rotor dead-on with #1 position on cap (when at TDC)? Or the leading edge?

Anyway, at least partial victory for now!

Mrmerlin

The rotor leading edge should line up with the hash mark in the distributor body when the engine is at TDC for#1 ,,Of course you need a timing light to correctly time the engine once you get it running. Check the spark plug wire routing after noting the direction of distributor rotation

Landseer

Got it. One tooth off. Rotor NOW aligned on marks. Distrib has small notch at throat (down low) that corresponds to a tick mark that is covered up by cap.

Wires routed correctly.

Found another stupid mistake. Right cam gear flipped, notch out instead of in. No timing effect, but wrong tracking on that gear.

When clock tics 6:30 am here we should have baaaawahhhhhh. Earlier might cause mutiny. It is tempting though. Like waiting for Santa now. Do I sound 48?

Landseer

Well, first the good news! Got to hear it run. What a great sound, even at idle and with blips of the throttle. Turned the car around in driveway, put it nose first into garage. Running rich (gas smell in exhaust) also white exhaust (its 22 deg F here, but I started it in the warm garage and the white exhaust was very thick.

Couldn't start it without jumping fuel relay.

Also, had to hold-open the air gate. Why? Shouldn't it acutate? Same happened before, had to hold it open. Tach worked, but coolant light came on and stayed on. Car ran for two minutes or so before I shut it down. Radiator hose cold, never opened new tstat, block hardly got warm let alone hot, felt it all over cam towers.

Now the bad news. Checked oil (8 quarts new oil ) and found some creaminess and bubbles. Checked a few more times for posterity.

Drained radiator (need to go to work, don't have time to drain block).

Should I run a compression check now? Or just pull it all and attack head gaskets. Car boiled over near my house when WP failed 10 weeks ago when we brought it home. Guess it got too hot. Am frustrated, but not giving up.

Lizard928

sounds like you have a dead hg, though you may get luck and just change the fluid and give it another try.

Choice is yours, but what is a the cost of a few litres of oil to confirm, compaired to pulling everything and replacing the gaskets.