Well ok then, We all know what opinions are like, but heres my theory.
Since it at least ran before the head swap.


1) the valves(length), rocker arms or pushrods do not match the new heads. And its loading up with fuel(when the coil wire is attached), and the valves are not opening causing hydra lock.

2) since you smell gas in the oil, you may have clogged/leaking injectors. When you checked cranking fuel pressure, did it hold at that PSI? Or drop quickly?

3) when you unplug the coil, there is no fire, the asd shuts off so no injector pulse,no fuel. When you plug it back in #1 and #2 theories come into play.

And since we seem to have eliminated a clogged cat, the only other thing would be a bad crank sensor as mentioned earlier by others that I thought you replaced. But I don't see how that can cause this issue. Never know I guess.

 

the heads are the odessa reinforced heads that come with valves, springs, retainers already installed and all supposed to be new.

it held the psi pretty steady until i unhooked the tester

 

You sure you got the pushrods and rocker arms installed right? And the only thing you have not replaced is the crank sensor. If it's that I'll be damned. I'm stumped and out of ideas, other than removing the VC's and making sure the valve train is working correctly. And, you did have the negative battery cable disconnected first, before performing all this work right?

 

yeah, battery disconnected, rockers were all torqued to spec, cant recall the number offhand. im stumped myself. still havent gotten to verify timing is dead on but shouldnt have changed from when it was apart

 

Except for the crank sensor, all the other sensors were replaced. Leave the Y disconnected for now too. Take a gamble and replace it(crank sensor). Have you pulled the plugs one at a time and verify spark? My previous theories may be wrong and probably are, but I still think there is valve train issue. Disconnecting the coil wire should make no difference as to how the motor turns over . Whether it starts or not.

 

Theory’s here’s mine


1 Left over oil in the cylds from the head work, (did you coat the cyld with anything to protect them when the heads were off?, rings will hold lots of oil below the top of the piston and the top ring) possibly causing a hydro lock, easy to check pull the sparkplugs and spin the motor over with the starter and watch for oil or other vapors coming out the sparkplug holes, if lots keep turning the motor over till it dissipates, then reinstall the plugs and try starting the motor. Disconnect the coil and the fuel pump before this is done.

2 Your motor is out of time; somehow the chain has skipped a link.( You have yet to verify your rotor position)

 

My $.02 -

I read your drive-it-off-a-cliff thread, and then this one. The first post in this thread is worth quoting from:

" .. it sounds like the battery is dying or there are cylinders firing against each other. the battery is new and good, i agree it seems the cylinders are firing in the wrong order, but i am positive the firing order is correct ...

It does sound as if there are cylinders firing against each other. Maybe the reason you can wait a few seconds and get the engine to crank a little bit more is that the compression has had some time to seep out of the cylinders that are resisting the cranking.

I know you said the wires were ordered correctly, but .....

When I was a computer programmer, it was a rule that if you were banging your head against the wall trying to figure something out that made no sense whatsoever because you were sure it couldn't be happening, you had to have someone else look at it. We all have a tendency to make the same wrong assumptions over and over again, where a fresh set of eyes might say "hey, what you thought was position #1 on the distributor cap is actually #8" (or #2). It sounds so much like timing way out of whack that you or someone else has to make triple damn sure that when you're at TDC of #1 compression that the rotor is pointing at #1 on the cap, and that the wire on the cap is going to cylinder #1. Then make triple damn sure that all the other wires are going to the right cylinders; 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2.

Right now, I don't think you'd bet your life that #1 is really #1; you need to get to that level of certainty.

Next: The guys at the parts place told you your starter checked out fine, put maybe it's not so fine under load.

Next: Hydro-locking makes no sense at all if your engine spins fine when the coil is disconnected.

Lastly: a 22mm or 7/8 crowsfoot wrench works great for removing O2 sensors. Put an 18" breaker bar to it; neither the sensor or bung will break.

 

wow, john that last line got a smile out of me! ok, im going out now to figure out the timing issue

 

i see the marking on the harmonic balancer/crank pulley, but wheres the mark on the block?

 

nevermind, found it....


and it seems when its at tdc the rotor is pointing at the #8 cyl. can i just take the bolt out of the distributor and pull it out and adjust and put back in?