87' GMC v1500 GM crate 350 swap, won't start

[plowman]

 Hello

I'm having some trouble trying to get my truck started and I'm hoping someone here can help me.

The truck is an 87' GMC V1500, it came with a 305 and a 700R4 from the factory. The 305 had a catostrophic failure and needed to be replaced. It was running fine until it had a bearing issue and started knocking.

So I picked up a GM crate 350, new injectors, knock sensor, and ESC module.

At first I had issues getting to to fire and determined it was 180 degrees out of alignment. That was fixed and the backfiring stopped. At this point it would start to fire, but It would not catch and run. I insured cylinder one was a tdc and have checked the wires multiple times. I have tried to adjust the timing a little and it sounds like it wants to start but just won't.

Since then I have replaced the fuel pump , pump relay, and fuel filter (although I can see fuel coming out of the injectors, and hear the pump priming when I turn the ignition on). I have also ordered a pressure gauge and fitting for the filter to confirm actual fuel pressure.

I have also replaced the entire distributor with a new AC Delco oem replacement. The old one was rather rusted and the contact didn't seem great. I was concerned the pickup or sensor was bad and not sending the injector pulses.

This didn't seem to have any effect so I ordered myself a code reader to see if I could pull any helpful info off the computer to help get me on the right track. Unfortunately it spit out 10 codes at me and did nothing to help me narrow down my issue.

The code reader gave the the following codes.

42
35
33
32
31
55
54
52
51
43

After seeing these the ECM seemed to be a fairly common thing amongst the codes. I double checked my grounds and decided to order a replacement AC delco oem ECM. After putting the prom and memcal in the new ECM I checked the grounding and wiring one last time before hooking the battery back up.

The truck is a plow truck and the previous owner did the install and hacked the wiring up a little. Befor hooking the battery back up
I noticed I had been hooking a grounding cable directly to the positive terminal (the truck has a standard neg cable terminal and multiple additional
Wires on a threaded negative terminal, with only three wires on the threaded terminal on the positive side and no standard battery cable terminal). It has a brand new marine/rv battery.

I corrected the incorrect ground cable routing prior to trying to start on the new ECM. The truck did the same thing and seemed to throw out the same exact ten error codes afterwards.

There are multiple other supporting features nf items that were cleaned and or replaced but nothing that I can think of that would cause this. Has a new radiator and water pump, torque converter, an edelbrock manifold, I cleaned the tbi unit and rebuilt the fpr. I have a new set of headers but have reinstalled the factory manifolds and am trying to start it open header with the factory 02 sensor installed. All of the factory smog equipment was retained.

I don't know what I am missing.

[Irish_Alley]

welcome from maryland. lets stop throwing parts at it (dont know whats left) but start trouble shooting. i wouldnt pay any attention to the check engine light as youve had a few problems and the engine isnt running right now.

so the engine will start and then just quit as soon as you let go of the key? or will it just shudder?

have you see if you can get it running on starting fluid?

what happens when you apply 12v to the red wire coming off the fuel pump relay?

[Irish_Alley]

also
http://www.73-87chevytrucks.com/techinfo/TroubleshootingTBISystems.pdf

[plowman]

It will only pop every other time or so when I hold the key down.  With starting fluid it will pop every time but won't stay running.  It won't stay running when I hold the key it just pops once then kinda sounds like it just stalls.

I'm. It sure how to go about applying 12 volts to that wire.  I have a multimeter. It am not well versed in using it or even sure if that is the right tool for this job.
I tend to struggle with electrical which is what I feel like the underlying issue is here.

But any help is greatly appreciated.  Thanks

[plowman]

also
http://www.73-87chevytrucks.com/techinfo/TroubleshootingTBISystems.pdf

I already had this link open.  It's one of the motivators for ordering the fuel pressure gauge.

[Irish_Alley]

i know theres a picture of it somewhere. but if you look at the fuel pump relay it will be a red wire thats about 4" long with a spade connector on it. it may be buried in the wire loom but its the only wire thats about 4" (maybe 3) thats sticking out of the base of the relay

[plowman]

I know the connector you are referencing.

Just not sure how to go about feeding 12v to it.  I'm good with the mechanics nuts/bolts but Electrical is not my strong suit.

I'm invisioning a 12v battery with a wire or just finding a wire to run directly off the car battery.  I'm not exactly sure where to source the 12v or how to feed it to the connector.

What am I looking for after I apply the 12v?  Should the injectors just start spraying or am I just wanting to hear the pump turn on?  When I hit the key they seem to dribble more than spray until it fires then it stops, seems to actually spray real quickly and dies off immediately.

[Irish_Alley]

oh my bad. yes take a wire from your battery B+ and run it to that jumper wire. it will bypass the fuel pump relay and your pump will be on until you disconnect that wire.

[Irish_Alley]

honestly i dont think it will help your issue. but i want to make sure the pump isnt turning off at some point. also check for spark during the cranking with more than one cylinder, and check your compression with a compression tester

[Irish_Alley]

you can rent the compression and fuel testers at most parts store and a injector diode tester or the likes of one.

[plowman]

I bought a fuel pressure tester that says it can do compression testing, so hopefully I can give those both a good testing when that shows up.  I also got the fuel filter adapter to use as a source for the fuel pressure reading

In the mean time I will get power to that connector and insure my pump is staying on, and I'm thinking about trying to physically confirm the timing mark on the balancer is actually tdc for cyl 1.

An injector diode is the same as a noid light?

[Irish_Alley]

yes

[VileZambonie]

Sounds like you have the distributor in wrong. How are you identifying #1 at TDCC?

[bd]

^^^^^  This.

[82silverado]

That was my first thought also.