yep, I double checked and even had another mechanic buddy double check every thing.

 

In my opinion, your engine is badly out of time - retarded. The ignition is starting or taking place with the exhaust valves opening - the cannon you're hearing is part of the combustion taking place in your exhaust system. Ofen, a badly retarded engine is very hard to start. I would recommend that you review the whole setup, from ensuring you have #1 at TDC, to the chain/cam alignment, to the distributor installation. If all of this is right on the money for sure (it's not hard to be out, especially in the distributor installation), then I'd have a look at the following:

• Check the condition of the harmonic balancer. If the mechanic is using the marks on this for TDC & the balancer is separated at the rubber joint, you don't know where #1 cylinder is.
• Positioning of the Crank and the Cam sensors - the crank sensor should be on your bell housing somewhere and the cam sensor is usually stuck in the distributor housing.

My money would be on the balancer or the distributor installation.

 

Thank you for your advice, I finally took a second look and what I found was that when #1 was TDC the exhaust valve was closing, so what I finally ended up doing was instead of setting the timing as the book says, I set the timing marks both at the 12 o'clock position and set the distributor at #1. The strangest thing happened after that..... It fired right up and ran. I don't fully understand why, but I believe that the cam was replaced due to the fact that every cylinder was the same, when the engine came to TDC on any cylinder the exhaust valve was closing. I don't know if any one else has ever had this issue but I was a little surprised to see this, that led me to the conclusion that the came was replaced or the book was wrong. I don't really know, but it was frustrating as all get out, and now it is running, I think with a little fine tuning it will be ok, but we will see.... no more cannon blast, or intake popping, so now my neighbors, wife and the local police (no 911 calls about shots fired, lol) are happy! Gain thank you for your help, I greatly appreciate it.

 

Good work!!! Not sure which book you were using for the instructions, but some of the aftermarket manuals are wrong & are never updated. Enjoy your jeep.