84 grand wagoneer (wife's wagon)

Distributor timing is proper. I put fuel in the tank and I know it's getting to the carb. Still no fire. My timing light is junk, but I've moved it around a little.

 

well, I pulled the oil filter off (fresh oil and filter) and it didn't have any oil in it. Would my lifters not being pumped up cause a no start? I don't have any engine noise during cranking or when it does run.

 

I bet Andrew would know.

 

Well send him down. I gotta get something going here.

 

I'm not familiar with the AMC 360, but I am assuming the oil pump is driven from the distributor. Are you sure the distributor is turning the oil pump? Either way I might be inclined to prime the pump with a drill to get oil flowing just to be safe.

 

Yeah, I took the pump off and the shaft is connected. Next is too drop the pan to make sure the pick up isn't clogged

 

It doesn't look like he's logged in right now. You could send him a PM
Andrew = Silvertwinkiehobo

 

I don't know how easy it is to pull the pan in one of these nor do I know how much you've cranked it, but before you drop the pan I would just hook up a mechanical oil pressure gauge and spin the pump with a drill.

 

I've cranked it enough that it ought to have primed. The pan has some sludge in it. I picked a decent amount out when I did the oil change. It must be plugging the pick up tube too.

Now, if that lack of oil was preventing the lifters from pumping up, would it cause my no start?

 

http://theamcforum.com/forum/oil-pressure-issue-401_topic55405_page2.html

 

I could see from the drain hole that there was a gap. There was a considerable amount of sludge down there though. When I took the oil pump off, there was a little bit of sludge in there too. I'm assuming the pick up is plugged with sludge. I ordered a new oil pan seal that should be here tomorrow morning. I will post pictures of what I find.

As for the no start, I gave it a good douse of starting fluid and it started to fire off. Then, I held it wide open and it ran, but poorly. The longer I kept it running, the less throttle it took to keep it going. It was never able to idle on its own though.

 

What I miss?

 

Tryloff, do you know if the dizzy shaft was actually engaged to the oil pump drive? I've seen where engines didn't have oil pressure because there was no proper engagement of the drive rod. Also, you should have attempted to manually prime the pump and run oil through the engine prior to attempting to start it. This ensures there's at least oil from the pickup, through the pump & filter, and into the block galleries.

 

I did make sure when I stuck the distributor in. Also, when I took the pump housing off, I made sure again by attempting to spin the pump. I'm going to pull the pan and clean the crud out tomorrow or Thursday. Will post pics. Also, I'm very tempted to pull the timing cover and check cam timing. I already have to coolant drained so that saves a step. And if I'm going to be pulling the distributor back out to prime it up after cleaning the pan, that saves another step. Plus, timing sets are only $40..

 

For all that you likely should've just pulled the engine, stuck it on a stand. I did that with my Ranchero's engine earlier this year, redid all the gaskets and seals, verified everything was hunky-dory, and Babe now runs like a top.