86GT, I got a new 2.8 v6 engine from Advance Auto and tonight I'm trying to fire it up.
The last thing I did was to install a new distributor tonight. Being it was a new block and had no distributor in it I have no marks to line it up by.
I went by the Hayes manual and set the #1 cyl to TDC on the compression stroke, aligned the timing mark on the harmonic balancer to 0 then I inserted the distributor so that the rotor aligned/pointed at the #1 spark plug.
It cranks over but no start. I do have spark. Battery was a little weak so I ran a jump to it and it turns over nice and fast now. It acts likes it wants to start now, but it won't. I then tried tweaking/turning the distributor from side to side a little then !!POW!! it backfired.

Is this still a timing issue? Is the #1 plug wire on the distributor cap the one that is aligned with the #1 cyl?

tks guys
jim

Sounds likr you got the plugwires mixed up. Take off the cap when the motor is on TDC. and see if the rotoe is pointing to the #1 cyl post. then make sure you have all of the other wires set up right for the fireing order.

How do I know which is the #1 post? I did set #1 cyl to TDC on the compression stroke and took the cap off, the rotor is pointing to the #1 cyl/spark plug. Is the #1 post on the cap the one inline with the #1 plug and the rotor in this position?

man tks for the help

jim