1998 3500 crew/longbed build

[someotherguy]

Pretty sure for the stock manifold, the only fuel rail you've got is the one it came with. And I mean that literally. They're discontinued. Many of us have found that even when you're careful, it's easy to break the nubs that hold the injector retainer clips, though it's easy (but sounds awful) to repair them with zip ties.

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Richard

 

[Orpedcrow]

I don’t have a 454 so I don’t know but saw this as I was looking at other fuel related stuff for my truck.

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[Spareparts]

I had read everyplace to gently pry from the top on the little clips to work them off. I got one off that way and it was a PITA.
I found that if you put a little oil on the clips and gently pried up where the red arrows are the clips nearly jumped off and was very easy as you are also not fighting the part holding the injector on.

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[themeec]

Pretty sure for the stock manifold, the only fuel rail you've got is the one it came with. And I mean that literally. They're discontinued. Many of us have found that even when you're careful, it's easy to break the nubs that hold the injector retainer clips, though it's easy (but sounds awful) to repair them with zip ties.

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Richard

Yeah, I was made aware of the nuisance these things cause when I started looking into a 454. I've actually found NOS rails on eBay, but I'd rather just put a new manifold to support an aftermarket rail, rather than install another crappy plastic one. Everything on this thing is clearly original so it's all gotta go ... injectors, rail, harness ... may just get a whole kit, make it easy on myself if no one makes just the rail.

 

[themeec]

I don’t have a 454 so I don’t know but saw this as I was looking at other fuel related stuff for my truck.

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Aw I wish, looks like it's not made for the Gen VI like I have. Thanks for the link though!

 

[themeec]

Finally had time over the holidays to track down all the necessary parts. Just got done putting in new gaskets under the plenum, throttle body and emissions. Fresh set of Bosch injectors, spark plugs/cables, and new distributor.

Got everything in, set the engine to TDC, got the distributor in dead on the mark, good spark, good injector flow, aaaaaaaand it's clearly way outta phase.

My guess is I got it on TDC Exhaust on accident instead of Compression, so I have the following idea:

If I continue to manually rotate the engine (with the distributor in, cap off), and get it to TDC again, if the distributor is pointing the opposite direction, I can safely assume that's Compression, reset the distributor to the right position and should be good? Just a thought I had, since I don't have a boroscope to check the cylinder head.

Couple additional questions while there's some eyes on this thread however:

1. What is this supposed to go to? I still haven't traced the issue of the headlight/wipers on fiasco, and haven't found any bad wiring, except for this plug chilling out by the battery on the passenger side of the engine bay. Headlights/turn signals are all wired in on this side correctly, so wasn't sure if there was something else this is normally supposed to go to that might be causing the problem?

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2. If anyone has any tricks up their sleeve about manually rotating the engine (minus jamming your arms between the fan and the block like I have been currently) I'm down to try just about anything else, haha.

After fighting with the no-start issue, took a break to do something more cathartic, and breathed some new life into the grungy wheels this thing came with:

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[Erik the Awful]

Why bother with rotating the engine? Just lift the distributor, turn the rotor 180° and re-stab.

I typically pull the valve cover to make sure both #1 valves are closed. Since you think you're 180° out, you want to see a slightly opened valve on #1, or both valves on #6 closed.

 

[Orpedcrow]

I saw this thing called a compression whistle. Basically a cheap keychain whistle shoved into a spark plug defouler thing.

 

[someotherguy]

I saw this thing called a compression whistle. Basically a cheap keychain whistle shoved into a spark plug defouler thing.

These are trick but it does take developing an "ear" for when it's on the compression stroke as the exhaust stroke will whistle, too, just sounds a bit different. Also much easier to utilize the whistle if you have a remote starter switch hooked up so you can bump it as needed. Lisle, Performance Tool, Actron, etc. all offer one fairly cheap.

Richard

 

[themeec]

Why bother with rotating the engine? Just lift the distributor, turn the rotor 180° and re-stab.

I typically pull the valve cover to make sure both #1 valves are closed. Since you think you're 180° out, you want to see a slightly opened valve on #1, or both valves on #6 closed.

That's a good point. I think at this point, I'd like just like to make ABSOLUTELY sure I've got it right, and confirm I'm correct in my assumption about being 180 off, is all.

Thanks for the hints on the valves, I'll give that trick a shot.