Like the title says, I had the head rebuilt in my 95 sidekick 1.6L 16v. I have quadrillion checked the timing and this damn thing will not start. Motor cranks easy, valves aren't hitting or anything. I followed the valve lash instruction to the T on the kick-fix website. I'm 99% sure that's not the issue. Car seems to be getting fuel, I can smell it after cranking it for a few seconds. I don't know if this is normal or not. As it sits now, I have the entire top end put together, intake, valve cover, timing cover, everything... The alternator is attached and plugged in, but the belts are not. Is there some kind of secret switch on these??? Does the alternator need to be fully operational? I'm seriously at a lose here..... Any help would be greatly appreciated.

-Nick

 An the cam be 180 out on 16v ?

no. it's a 2 to 1 ratio crank to cam.   the dist is wrong on most books.

I've tried timing it to the 1st and the 4th in case I did reverse the cam and crank. Still nothing. I've tried all 3 locations on the dist that the rotor will fit on. 2 of the 3 get spark so I'm done to 4 possible orientations?

1st cylinder 1st rotor location.
1st cylinder 2nd rotor.
4th cylinder 1st rotor.
4th cylinder 2nd rotor.

Does this sound correct? The cap and rotor are new so I can't go by the pictures on kickfix.

Is there any vacuum lines that could have been mismatched that would prevent it from starting?
Is there any electrical connections, motor in in the cab, thY would prevent it from starting? I'm not even getting a backfire...

-Nick

pull the number one plug out, Stuff some Scott towel into the hole real good using a screwdriver or such, turn the engine over until the paper shoots out,turn the engine back to 0 on the crank, pull the dist cap and line up the rotor to number one, the rotor should turn ccw, put the rest of the wires in accordingly.  next if you have spark shoot a little starting fluid or propane in the intake and see what it does.

I get off at noon today ill give that a try with some ether or something. now when you say the dist turns ccw how is that possible when the motor turns cw? Are you talking about when you seat the dist the rotor will turn slightly ccw because of the spiral gears?

This is off the top of my head but yes the gear on the cam and the dist are cut differently from the eight valve engine, one turns clock wise the other counter clock wise.

Mine is the 16v fyi.

Tried what you suggested... I got nothing. Not even a back fire. I have spark.

ya I have four sixteen valve engines here and three eight valve engines, so I'm working on something different each time, and that's just the Suzuki's.  ya a couple of months back I Think I counted fourteen 4x4 rigs in my yard ! and you could see them from google earth so I moved some out back under the trees, LOL

Well after scratching my head all weekend I finally found out what the problem was....


I had my cam timing off after all. I had aligned it correct with the timing mark, but these stupid cogs have two slots for the drive pin, I had it on the wrong slot. No damage was done and once I out it corrected the damn thing fired right up. Got everything put back together and drove it to work today after a few small trips around the block and re-adjusting the valve lash. Everything seems fine except I'm missing some power in the 3-4k rpm range. I'm gonna check my plugs and wires but I was wondering if there is a better ignition systems out there for these?

Thanks for the help.

did you turn off your ecm when you used a timing light on it? there is a four or six wire white plug that you have to run a paper clip across two of the pins to time it.

did you turn off your ecm when you used a timing light on it? there is a four or six wire white plug that you have to run a paper clip across two of the pins to time it.

Yes I did the timing freeze jumper.

on one of mine It had a napa belt and I replaced it with another brand the was just a little bit different in length the napa was shorter so I went back to a napa belt, got my torque back.

I've tried timing it to the 1st and the 4th in case I did reverse the cam and crank. Still nothing. I've tried all 3 locations on the dist that the rotor will fit on. 2 of the 3 get spark so I'm done to 4 possible orientations?

1st cylinder 1st rotor location.
1st cylinder 2nd rotor.
4th cylinder 1st rotor.
4th cylinder 2nd rotor.

Sometimes the rotor will fit in all 3 positions on the distributor shaft.  But only 1 is correct.  If you look at the end of the distributor shaft (with the rotor off), you will notice that one of the "walls" on one of the flats is slightly thinner than the other 2.  The thin wall is the side that the pointer on the rotor aligns with.
If the rotor is on wrong, it is possible to get the engine to run relatively well.  I actually bought a trackick once that had the rotor in the wrong position.  But it needs to be positioned properly, for optimum power.

I'm glad you got it running. Did you put a new cam in it? If so where did you get it? Thanks!

Kevin