Plea for help- Can't get it running... (Page 1 of 2)

From the vid your timing chain marks need rechecked, I do not have experience with your particular engine but a quick internet check indicates you have a interference engine... NOT good, you may have bent valves.

If it were a Saab... which is an interference engine... after checking that you are at TDC top dead center, on the timing marks on the flywheel, then check that the cams have their alignment marks right too.  after being  very sure that the engine timing is right... the next thing is to decide if you have spark or fuel issues.  usually I spray carb cleaner or brake cleaner into the intake and crank.  if should fire and cough like it wants to start.  if it does... you most likely have a fuel or injector issue (sometimes this is caused by a crank or cam position sensor too... it wants to see the engine rotating before it squirts fuel...), if it does NOT fire then you may have an ignition issue (also can be because of a crank or cam position sensor, which ever is on your engine) some cars have a hall effect sensor in the distributor and will have another wire plugged into the distributor with about three contacts in it and will not then have the crank or cam sensor.

This is generic stuff and you need to understand which your engine runs with, are there any books available for your engine?  Do a google search on replacing the head or head gasket.  here is a link I found that shows some of the technical items.

http://forums.nicoclub.com/how-to-chang … 45686.html

If you bent the valves already then you wouldn't... ask me how I know this... :fullbodyshiver:

bent/broken valves+no sealing off of the combustion chamber+not the right mixture in the combustion chamber=backfires and/or missing

One dead Toyota headed to the junkyard...

Your cam is out of time. The problem is that it's not a SBC, you don't align the two timing dots with each other. You need to get ahold of a service manual (available somewhere on the web for free) and see where to align the marks to. I don't remember how to align it because I haven't been a Nissan tech for 10 years now, but I'll put dollars to donuts that's your problem.

Are you SUUUUUUURE your timing is right? (Link goes to image)
http://www.phyrefile.com/image/view/px7EsZW7Nk8A7fWg

Triple check fuel supply.  I had a car where the socket for the fuel pump relay was loose so the fuel pump would run intermittently and pressure would be low when it did run.  I just "tightened" the lugs in the socket with a small screwdriver, car's run for three years since then.  Might not be it, but it's worth a shot.

(Similar symptoms, no start, when it did run it ran like ass.)

When you pulled the head, how did you keep the timing chain on the lower gear?
Which you couldn't see, because you didn't pull the front cover? or you did pull the front engine cover?

As noted before.
1. pull all the plugs out. rotate the engine by hand or with a wrench on the front bolt. 27mm or 1 1/16" (1 1/8") should work, its a Nissan. the engine should turn easily by hand. if it does not, take it apart.
2. Pop the valve cover off. Look at all the springs, retainers, valve positions. look for any gaps between cam and cam followers, busted parts, etc....
3. Put a big screw driver in the #1 plug hole so it touches the piston, Rotate and find top dead center (TDC). look down at the timing mark on the front pulley. Does the mark line up? it should, or you'd have the wrong pulley on there.
Look at the cam lobes for the #1 cylinder, they should be pointed up toward the hood, meaning the #1 valves are closed. If NOT, rotate the engine 360 degrees and check again. If neither of those are correct, the cams are timed wrong. Write back, for more instructions. it might be that you drop the timing chain enough to allow it to move one or two teeth on the lower drive gear.

4. with out rotating the engine, pop the distributor cap. and see if the rotor is pointed directly at the #1 plug wire. It should be. If not, your distributor drive is off, or the distributor is not timed correctly. Verify per the shop manual the alignment of the drive tab on the distributor drive (engine side). If that is off, that means you dropped the oil pump and didn't put the drive shaft back in place with the correct clocking. read the manual to get that right, then re-install the dizzy and see if you can get the rotor pointed at the #1 wire in the cap.
5. loosen the distributor base so you can rotate the dizzy. put a plug into the #1 wire and lay it on something metal of the engine so you can see the spark gap. Spin the engine over with the starter. You should see a spark at the plug. watch to see if you can judge if teh spark is at TDC. You could put a timing light on it to help see the cam lobes or pulley timing mark.
Then stop and rotate the engine by hand to 10 or 15 BTDC (the timing mark)- engine ON (not start)- and rotate the dizzy to see if you can get the spark. Locate the dizzy at the spot where you have a spark on the #1 plug at 10 BTDC. You have just statically timed your engine.
Put the plugs and valve cover back in/on.
6. Check the rotation direction of the dizzy (cap off, spin the engine). Then put the plug wires back into the cap in the right order, direction.
7. Number the cap ports for the plug wires #s. Do the same on the valve cover so any one of your wives can re-do the plug wiring in the dark with a flashlight.
8. If it still won't run you have some other  fuel/computer/electrical problem

9 to check fuel, pull an injector out and put it in a glass jar and crank the engine to see it spray. check all the injectors.
You can put a Volt Ohm meter (set for Ohms resistance) and measure each injector resistance. look up what yours is supposed to be.

write back if all that fails and we'll try and figure out what else to look at.

If you rotated the cam independently of the crank, you probably dinged some valves. The technician I interned under showed me where to set the crank so you could rotate the cam freely, but I can't remember. He also told me that you can ding the valves without feeling resistance.

So we pulled the head off last night (in record time....for us.  We're, um, getting sorta good at this...).

All of the valves look perfect- pulled them all out and checked with straight edge, detailed visual inspection etc.  No marks or other evidence on the pistons of anything either.  HOWEVER- in pulling everything off we found a number of bolts that were not even sort of tight.  Including nearly all of the bolts on the intake rocker arm shaft.  I was working night shift during the head re-install so I wasn't around during that part and can't comment on what happened.  People seem to recall tightening things but apparently not well enough/ with inadequate torque wrench usage. 

The question of the day now is whether or not our loose rocker arm shaft could have caused our problems.  There was a little...incident where some motor mounts were not retightened at the first start up (a part was dropped in the oil pan.  Removing the oil pan on our car requires unbolting a couple motor mounts and jacking up the engine a bit.) so there was some crazy movement which could easily have loosened bolts that were snug but not tight.  So we were (sort of) ok on first start up then knocked everything loose?  We did still have compression on #4, however, as of Monday night before we pulled the head again.  The intake rocker arm bolts were tightest down by #4 but still not all that tight.  ???

What else should we be looking for with the head apart again?

I know you all are shaking your heads/facepalming for us but we're trying to learn, really!  Some of us are, perhaps, not as detail oriented as we need to be. (I've learned to always ask questions like....did we put oil back in?  Did we put coolant back in?  Apparently I did not ask enough of such questions.)

Bummer about Pick-n-pull.  I saw that Pick your part was doing the 50% off thing this weekend but Bakersfield (the closest one) is just a bit far for us for that (though could be useful during the race!).  Though perhaps we don't need it after all...

IIRC, the timing/oil pump drive is an offset tab, not a gear. You can't get it wrong.

You need the cam to crank timing spot on.  Since there are chain guides/tensioners they take up the chain play.  They put marks on the timing links so you can just align them with the dot or whatever they do at the crank and cam and not worry about the slack making the timing off by a tooth or more when they get tensioned.

The CAS or distributor needs to be timed correctly too.  Some have a gear and some are offset keyed so you can mess it up depending on which style you have.  You have to make sure the crank and cam are at tdc.  The cam spins 2x for the crank spinning 1x so your distributor/cas can be 180 off and firing on the wrong tdc stroke.

If you want i could email you the alldata info on how to time the chain and distributor on monday.  If you want it email me the year model of the engine and an email address.