I have a 351W (w/four bolt balancer it is a 70s motor I don't know what year) in a 65 mustang fastback. It has been running fine for months, when I shut it off the last time it sounded fine. It will not start now. Everything is brand new on this motor and it has less than 2k since the rebuild. It has spark from an MSD system at both the coil and the plugs; it is getting plenty of gas from a 750 Edelbrock. It just cranks and cranks with never a hint of firing, it was running great prior to this. I have checked and double checked everything I could think of and then went back through all of the rebuild receipts and did not find any reference to replacing the timing gears. The distributor rotor is turning. The only thing I can think of now is that something has happened to the timing. I hate the idea of pulling the front off of the motor to check the timing chain and gears if there is some other possibly. Any Ideas ? Is there anything else I can check?

 

do you have a stuck float in your carb? Happened to me... take a wrench and lightly tap the fuel bowls... sounds like a fuel problem since you have spark and you had no problems when you shut if off last...

 

Thanks for the feedback. I can see that the excellerator pumps are working and that I get a strong smell of gas after I crank it for awhile. Gas appears to be going through the carb.

When your float was stuck what did that do? ... just prevent fuel from going through the carb and into the intake MF.

 

the float was stuck closed and the car wouldnt start after the engine cooled down....

 

+1 on the stuck float.

When was the last time the carb has been cleaned? Or did it sit all winter with gas in it?