I recently got my 318 LA which I put into my 1987 Dodge Dakota running! While this was exciting, there were big issues, like how flames shot out the exhaust ports (I haven't put the manifolds on yet,) and how I needed seemingly excessive amounts of ignition timing advance from the distributor to get it to stop a really rough Idle. The first thing that came to mind was the carburetor, and I ran some separate tests on that, but then I thought to take the valve cover on the driver's side off and look at how my valves were opening and closing. That's when I got to the issue. On TDC on the exhaust stroke, the intake wasn't opening until a long time after TDC (my GUESS being maybe 15 to 20 degrees ATDC since my new harmonic balancer only has TDC markings.) I took the timing cover off and stuck a screwdriver in cylinder no. 1, and the TDC marking on the crank gear was right on TDC pointing straight up, so now I knew that the valve was delayed.

After researching some more and doing some tests, I realized that since my lifters are hydraulic, the pushrods have a little play going up and down, so I thought possibly that the slack could cause that delay in the valve opening. Another possibility I thought of was the camshaft just being retarded a ton. By the way the dots on the crank and the cam gears were lined up correctly, with no teeth skipped and the correct crank slot used. Any help or insight is very much appreciated!

(P.S. I know some of the hot rodders on here love to see flame coming out the side of the engine, but these ones are big and concerning, and the combustion definitely is not complete by the time the exhaust opens.)

 

There should be timing marks on the timing cover on the drivers side. You line the mark on the balancer to them. TDC on the compression stroke (#1 cylinder) then see where your rotor is pointing.

 

Running without exhaust manifolds is good way to burn valves......

 

Would manifolds maybe hide the flames and help eliminate the flame source ? Have you dialed the cam in ? To check for valve timing, or degrees of crank rotation, I think you need a degree wheel on the crank versus the cam, cause would'nt you be checking crank rotation in degrees versus cam rotation in degrees? And a push rod dial gauge and magnetic clamp thing up on the valve end of the rocker to tell exactly when the valve opens ? If'n you were checking valve lift by cam rotation in degrees, then the wheel should be on cam? If it's on the cam, does that eliminate the timing chain from the equation? Is the cam rotation degree versus valve lift, included with the cam specs? If you know the timing chain ratio, could you maybe figure out the cam rotation in degrees versus crank degrees? And to check valve lift, should the lifters be filled with oil? Yes ! If the lifters aren't pumped up, would that cause a little play? The lifters should've filled before too long. How much distributor timing? OR am I chasing a rabbit down its hole!

 

You are burning gasoline, Flames will come out of the head/manifold! I think you should start with basic cam timing, If that's off everything will be off.