81 Mercruiser 140 summerizing and wont fire up?

1981 Mercruiser 140 with 1991 Est ignition

I am tryin to fit this motor in my boat and im running into an issue with the exhaust elbow and a few other things so I want to at least get this thing to fire up for a minute before i put anything else into it. Please help
I have spark and compression on all four cylinders. spark plug wires are in the correct place, and plugs gapped correctly. had some oil that was blown out of the cylinders into the manifold that i found after i was tryin to fire it up. pumped that out. about a 1.5 cups. maybe that didnt help but i dont think that it should prevent it from starting? the motor was being stored when i bought it a few weeks ago... there was a bunch of oil that was blown out of the cylinders when i was turning it over for compression test and to re-lubricate the walls. im sure it will smoke like crazy when/if i do get her fired up...

was trying to get this thing to fire up today and sprayed some gas in the carb and cranked it, but all I get is a backfire and some smoke out of the top of the carb and some from the exhaust? Someone mentioned that The distributor may be in wrong if its back firing like that? I installed upgraded est ignition with a buddy and put the 1st cylinder to tdc and put the distributor (EST) in with the rotor/shaft pointing toward the first cylinder. Could I possibly be on the first cylinder on the wrong stroke, and if so, could i just pull the distributor out and turn the rotor/shaft 180 degrees and put it back in? Im getting spark on all four cylinders though. Will it spark if the distributor is synced on the wrong cycle?

Re: 81 Mercruiser 140 summerizing and wont fire up?

The rotor does not point to the cylinder ,it points to where you put the #1 plug wire in the dist cap. spark will happen as long as the dist shaft turns.#1 must be on the compression stroke and at TDC to install a dist.

Re: 81 Mercruiser 140 summerizing and wont fire up?

the number one cylinder and the #1 position on the disributor are in the same direction. Does anybody have experience installing the EST ignition distributor? In my manual, and the Mercury manual it has installation/removal instructions with or without disturbance to the motor, but in the section for the est ignition it doesn't have it. I followed the instruction for a regular distributor, and I have spark, but I suspicious that it may be at the wrong time. I am getting back a back fire out of the carb. Nothing much, just a pop every so often. I have tried to crank it a bunch of times, usually for about 15 seconds and then wait. 15 minutes after two or three tries. Im not sure whats up with this thing? Any suggestions?

Re: 81 Mercruiser 140 summerizing and wont fire up?

Try rotating you plug wires around on the dizzy cap 2 spaces. You could be 180* off. Also keep the dizzy hold down bolt loose so you can turn it. You should be able to time it without starting.

Re: 81 Mercruiser 140 summerizing and wont fire up?

so I moved all of the plug wires 2 spaces to the left on the distributor and cranked it just for a 15 seconds, and sounds alot better. I dont have fuel to it right now so i done think that it would crank all the way over, but no more back fire sound... Sound Goods. SO, should i take the distributor out ad turn the rotor and shaft 180 degrees, and put the wires where they belong?

Re: 81 Mercruiser 140 summerizing and wont fire up?

should i take the distributor out ad turn the rotor and shaft 180 degrees, and put the wires where they belong?

Click to expand...

That wont do anything. You need to move the crank 360*.

Do exactly what was told to you in post #2. If you keep guessing, you run the chance of destroying your engine.

Make sure you are on compression stroke at TDC and drop the distributer in so the rotor is poitng to the terminal that you use for the # 1 cylinder...

Re: 81 Mercruiser 140 summerizing and wont fire up?

The dizzy doesn't care where you drop it in. Just have to line up rotor to #1 wire at TDC. How do I say this.....on an old 80's sb Chevy car, the dizzy cap LOOKED better being STRAIGHT, but it really dosen't matter where it's put in. It's just astetics, it looks better. So no , keep it where it is and put a timing light on it and turn the dizzy till it's right.

Re: 81 Mercruiser 140 summerizing and wont fire up?

Ok, so my assumption was correct. I on tdc on the 1st cylinder, but i was on the exhaust stroke. I took the distributor out and turned the shaft and the rotor 180' and put her back in and she fired up pretty easily. I obviously have to set the timing correctly, but she sounded pretty good. Thanks for all of your help guys, Matt

Re: 81 Mercruiser 140 summerizing and wont fire up?

I will answer your question. Yes you could pull the dist and rotate 180 and put the wires back as factory. BUT other than esthetic's there is no reason to do so.