Engine reassembly questions

[Meepersly]

Make sure when #1 is at TDC, that the rotor button is pointing at the #1 spark plug wire. The rotor button will go on in 3 different ways and 2 of those will not run.


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And one of those will make a very scary POP noise

[TWFodor]

UPDATES! Wonderful updates... Kinda.

Well, last night my more-mechanically-inclined brother-in-law came over and helped me work on the car. The timing was just about right, but we adjusted it one tooth so it was perfect. Also, we tested the plugs and he said they were hardly giving any spark, but the ones I got were the incorrect plugs, so I need to get new ones tonight.

PROBLEM 1: We then looked at the distributor and even at TDC it does not point at cylinder #1. Strange. I noticed this when I worked on it this last weekend, too. So I believe I have the incorrect distributor because it fit perfectly on a 8V head. I'll need to go to the jy and get the correct one. Which sucks.

PROBLEM 2: Contrary to what I thought, we were not getting fuel. The pump would not turn on. We took out the pump and hot-wired it to the battery for a split second and it ran, so I know the pump is good. Could this be a bad relay?

So, we then manually adjusted the distributor all the way towards the left as far as it could go so it sparked #1 first, and hot-wired the pump so we were getting fuel. The thing finally roared to life...Queue problem 3!

PROBLEM #3: Within one minute of running, the exhaust piping directly after the exhaust manifold got red-hot and starting sparking. We immediately shut the car off and scratched our heads. Any thoughts? Could the cat be partially clogged? We were getting exhaust out the back of the car so I know its not completely clogged.

[Meepersly]

When you I stall the distributor you could try rotating the rotor 180 degrees then install the rotor so it is on cyl 1 it sounds like its 180 degrees out and just the rotor is installed a different way. Probably your relay for your fuel circuit.

[TWFodor]

Distributor.jpg

Perhaps this poorly illustrated paint diagram will help! We tried putting the rotor on differently but apparently there is only one way to put it on with this one.

[Meepersly]

Very strange is it a vacuum advance?

[Dragonhealer]

Your diagram looks like the difference between SOHC dist and DOHC dist.

[Meepersly]

Your diagram looks like the difference between SOHC dist and DOHC dist.

Probably why it looks so alien to me

[TWFodor]

The distributor is mechanical, I didn't see any kind of vacuum advance on it. Is it possible that I have a distributor from a DOHC then? It seemed like no matter what we did, short of adjusting the distributor to ridiculous extremes, it wouldn't work.

[Meepersly]

Certainly different my dist. Usually has the rotor a tiny bit before cyl 1 tdc

[TWFodor]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Distributor-BP01-T2T52371-R4-Mazda-323-IV-BG-1-6-B-/301729898238?hash=item464080defe&vxp=mtr

My distributor is exactly like this one. Numbers are all the same except the 0824 in the middle, which is a production number I believe. That number is always different. (From what I've seen)

[Meepersly]

Looks like my b3 efi distributor. Not near mine right now so I can't check numbers

[TWFodor]

I will take some photos of my camshaft/distributor input so you can see what I'm talking about with the position of the rotor when I get home.

[TWFodor]

Here is what my 16V looks like at TDC. As you can see it will never point at Cylinder #1 while centered at TDC:
12048846_1050771278266496_1425989354_n.jpg

Here is a spare 8V head I have that is just about at TDC (1 tooth off I believe):
12042246_1050771394933151_2054555878_n.jpg

[sketchman]

I know my 16v SOHC swap took the stock Festiva dist just fine.

This is weird.

Check the part # on the dist and compare it to ones on rockauto to see which you have. I just looked and the BP01 is DOHC as far as I can tell, and the SOHC is not. I think.

[TominMO]

If you can get a disty to fit in there, but the ignition timing just isn't working out with the available range of movement of the disty housing, here's something else you can try: Move all the plug wires 90 degrees either advanced or retarded, whichever seems called for; then try adjusting the timing.