I have a 350(.60 over), Forged Keith Black Flattops, Forged Rods, Gear Drive, Sportsman 2 Heads etc. on my Nova. I recently installed a Oil pump due to a distributor malfunction.( Oil pump rod acutually jumping off the oil pump causing pump not to turn. Thought it was a bad oil pump.) After getting it all together, Primed pump( Great oil pressure) and tried to start the car. Car would not start. After countless hours of making sure car had Gas, air, and Spark, car still wouldn't crank. I looked at my fuses(Actual label scratched off indicating what it controls) and one of them had blown. Replaced fuse car started right up. Car ran excellent up the street got to my house parked it and car would not crank up again. I'm sure i have distributor installed correctly, spark at the Spark plugs and positive wire off of the Ignition Coil going to the B+ terminal on my H.E.I, and I also rechecked all of the fuses again. The only advice that I could get from a senior mechanic is check the engine ground, which I have never had one before, and the car has previously ran great without one. All cylinders have good compression, and spark to the plugs.(My only worry is that the spark might be the incorrect color) The motor maybe has a 1000 miles on it. If anyone could assist me in any way it would be greatly appreciated !  

Hey Guy, First off I'm not sure in your problem if it is the engine will not spin over or will not run. A few things to check, not having a engine ground will cause electrical systems to do funny things. You need a ground from engine to frame and from frame to body!! Next I'm not sure what year they went from the external coil and points and condenser to the {HEI} If it had a external coil make sure that the b+ wire going to the distributor has the full 12 volts going to it and not 7.5 volts. If it has 7.5 it has a resistor wire and you need to trace back along the wire and find the resistor and remove it. It sounds like you may have a weak park and this will cause it.

p.s. if I can help you in anyway let me know.

Thanks
Lee  

Thanks for responding. The engine will spin over but it will not run. It was originally equipped with points which I have converted to H.E.I. I have the full 12 volts to the distributor with me running a switch with the B+ terminal getting full Battery voltage and approx. 11.4v -11.5v while cranking. The engine is acting as if it isn't getting any fire when I know it is. Now the grounding issue is interesting. I never had to use any additional grounding,(Except Negative Battery Cable to Block) with any of the 2 motors I have previously had in the car. I will ground the car now from Engine to Frame, and frame to body now and see if that changes anything. I appreciate all your help, if you have any more suggestions please feel free to share them. Thanks.  

Hey Guy, A few things to check, take off dis cap make sure rotor is turning when cranking, take cover off the top of the dis cap where the coil is make sure there is 4 screws holding the coil down. there is a medal ground strap that should be under the coil, pull the coil up and the insulator ring and the rotor button, ck the cap for any carbon tacks inside the cap remove the rotor and make sure it does not have carbon traces on it or a hole burnt in it,if everything ck out ok resemble but when you are hooking the wires up there are 3 terminals on the cap to hook up, one side i think the right is b+{12} volts, the other side goes to ground on engine and the middle one goes to the gray wire on the tachometer if you have one ! if all of this checks out please post to let me know, if this does not help I will do my best to help you in any way possible to remedy you problem.

thanks
Lee  

Thanks for the response. I have checked, and even replaced everything except the rotor so i'll check that out and give you an update as soon as i finish troubleshooting.

Thanks.  

Have you had a chance on troubleshooting your nova at all?  

Sorry for the delayed response. I haven't had much time to troubleshoot more due to me preparing for my upcoming deployment. The last thing I did was removed both Valve Covers and made sure the valves were opening and closing like they were supposed to. I didn't notice anything wrong after doing this. The funny thing is no matter how much I turn the distributor I can't get it too backfire, poop, pop or anything. I leave at the end of this month so I do plan on doing whatever it takes too fire the car up before I leave, but thanks again for all your help and if you come up with anything else, just let me know, and i'll be more than happy to try it out.