First post here, hoping to help instead of asking for help. New owner of a 93 dd51b, bought it knowing it needed some work, was told it was probably a water pump but after a new pump and timing belt it turns out it was a head gasket. It ran great though. Ok , got a new gasket kit, cleaned up head, lapped valves and now it will not fire, not even a pop. It is getting fuel as evidenced by wet plugs, it has great and even compression, it has great spark at the plugs when pulled and connected to wires and grounded to the valve cover. You can even see the firing order. Double checked firing order (6 times) rotor pointing to #1 @tdc on comp. stroke. Double checked timing belt timing. Carb is sucking as it should while cranking. Starting fluid … no pop. I am now waiting on a new cap and rotor as the old cap was quite eroded at the contacts. The only thing different from when it ran before is I haven't filled it with coolant. I find it hard to believe compression would kill the spark but I need to try a new cap to be sure. Any thoughts? Grasping at straws now.
Have you verified it is getting spark at the plugs? You need two things to turn over fuel, and spark. You’ve got fuel, and typically if valve timing is off, you’ll get backfire, if you have spark. Pull a spark lug wire off, and hold it with the exposed end about half an inch away from something metal, and crank the engine. You should get a good white hot spark.
RickyD, I am no mechanic so I will just say something like that happened with me. You know its getting fuel by the wet plugs maybe super flooded. I removed my plugs and with a air blower blew each opening out waited a while smoked a cigarette and it turned over and started. Who knows
Now I feel like an idiot. I knew if I reached out I would find it. I was a tooth off on the distributor. Strange thing is, it wouldn't even make a pop. Runs great now, DOH. Now I have the dash all torn apart trying to replace a heater control cable. Must have been some pretty small people putting this thing together.
