Truck died and cranking sounds like this..

[Jeff Janssen]

My 97 5.7 sounded like that after the head gasket went. Tried to start but not enough unfowled plugs to fire. Lose any coolant lately?

 

[hekg]

What year is it? Any engine codes?
That's really weird. See how it feels turning it over by hand then do a compression test.

Maybe a stripped gear on your distributor shaft? Is this a TBI or Vortec?

Edit: must be a Vortec.

Yeah it's a 99 Vortec. I had a new cap and rotor put on it about two months ago. Not sure how it would've lost it's timing though.

 

[Dropped88]

Id pull distributor the vortecs are known to eat up the gear

Ive pulled so many that where razor sharp so I could see it get to point of stripping

 

[454cid]

Pull your Ignition Control Module (ICM) and take it in to get tested. Autozone can do it. It's mounted next to the coil.

 

[hekg]

My 97 5.7 sounded like that after the head gasket went. Tried to start but not enough unfowled plugs to fire. Lose any coolant lately?

Interesting... I actually did lose all my coolant about two months back.

i guess i should start by taking the plugs out and inspecting.

 

[hekg]

I disconnected the coil from the distributor, cranked it and there was good spark coming from the coil.

Tomorrow I’ll remove the distributor cap and inspect it and the rotor. If all’s ok there then I’ll pull the entire distributor and see how that gear looks.

 

[delta_p]

Wonder if the distributor hold down bolt came loose and the distributor turned a little. That should be easy fix.

 

[hekg]

I took the entire distributor out and it looked ok except that the gasket was broken. The Accel cap still looked good but the the AC Delco rotor looked pretty bad for only being 2-3 months old so i'll have to get a new one.

The plugs also looked pretty bad but those were old so I'm replacing them with new Ac delco iridiums and new AC delco wires.

I feel like just replacing the entire distributor with a billet aluminum one. Does anyone have any experience with 1A Auto distributors? Their billet ones are only $81 brand new with lifetime warrantly and it includes the cap and rotor.

 

[454cid]

How did the ICM test?

 

[ThaEdge]

My truck recently died and this is what it sounds like when I crank it. It's doesn't crank steadily until I let go of the key but instead it cranks and pauses and cranks and pauses some more until I release the key.

My starter is fairly new and my battery is brand new. Can this be a bad ground?

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Mine just did the same Saturday. Have you pulled the whole distributor? The gear was worn out on mine. Unfortunately mine also chewd up the cam gear... But it gives me a good excuse to put a bigger cam in it. So there's that. Good news for you is, the cam may be fine and you just need a distributor. I think they're about $100. I would bet money that's the distributor gear. Did it lose oil pressure at the same time?