am sorry to admit...i am currently trying to figure out where i went wrong ....i have a 2.4 liter dual overhead cam that the head gasket aand water pump blew on....well before i tore the motor down i never bothered to set the crank to tdc.....i know...i know....after hours of reading and going nuts, i decided to put the car back together...im stuck now thanks to this mistake.....back to reading,....my problem is that in order to change the head gasket i had to change the head bolts because they stretch out over time or whatever.....so in order to be able to get the head bolts out of the head, i had to take the 2 cams out....so while i did this ...as i said before...never bothered to set tdc....i took cams out, and took valves out replaced the valve stem seals and did inspection of lashes and springs and valves...everything was within tolerance so i put it back together....now while screwing around and such i decided to set the crank to tdc ...i believe tht i installed the ca,ms wrong, got car to turn over but it wont start...no matter how perfect i set everything to tdc.......i have even tried to set the crank and the cams with the original marks that i originally made when i tore the car down....so i guess my question is the same as yours...can you sirs, really install the cams wrong.....they would only sit in one side...no way to screw tht up, but im wondering if you can set the cams 180 off then after all the messing around ....i know obviously my timing is way off , so since yes there is someone out there who didnt set the crank to tdc before tearing the motor down, is there a way for me to completely reset the timing?????and how do i do it.....

 

After taking cylinder head off. The piston bores and about everything was covered in carbon and oil. Much like the rims of the pistons. What could be wrong with this engine?

Ran compression test today.

Dry: 150 - 110 - 130 - 150
Wet: 210*-190 - 200 - 220