5.0 conversion, going mad!

I've been spending the past two months working on my project. When I got it, it was running but the steering rack needed replacing and the tranny more or less exploded. The 5.0 was already in the car and it was speed density.

Since then I've gone through the entire car and replaced the entire front suspension, transmission, and rear end. Now that I've done all this I can't get the fuel pump to run as it's supposed to which is actually what prompted this project. I've narrowed down the electrical to no power to the inertia switch which isn't activating the fuel pump relay. I'll have to trace down the wire which goes from the inertia switch to the ECU power relay and see what's going on.

Now, my real problem is the timing. When I got it the distributor was retarded all the way to where it wouldn't turn anymore. So today I put the engine at TDC and re-inserted the distributor with the rotor on number one. Then with a timing light I set the timing to 10 ATDC, but the engine wouldn't run. I retarded the timing severely again to where it was before and the engine sputtered to life, but it runs terrible.

I just don't get what's going on with the timing. It won't idle, has a lot of hesitation, and over all it just runs like crap.

Any help on this would be appreciated.

It's not 180 out, I wish it was, that would be just too easy.

As for the balancer... That's possible, but wouldn't there be a lot of vibration if the balancer went bad and slipped?

I was thinking about the balancer, and I don't think that's it. I'm not using the balancer to get to TDC, I'm only using it to visually see what the timing is with a gun. The timing is so far retarded that the wires are pulled tight and the distributor is turned as far right as possible.

This is my fourth fox body and there's just something not right about what's going on here.

mercurycapri said:

Maybe the timing chain slipped?

Click to expand...

I've heard people say that about timing chains, but I just don't see how that can happen. I can see a belt slipping and changing the timing, but a chain or gears seem too solid to slip.

I didn't want to get into the engine yet, and if the chain needs to be replaced, then I feel I should just do the bottom end.

If the chain did slip, I don't think it would even run, would it?