Not starting after head gasket replacement

[SinusoidalTendencies]

So I just replaced my head gasket. Everything's put back together except whatever that one thing is ... starter is turning but not catching. What could it be?

[erikv11]

It comes down to checking fuel, spark and compression, but here are some common things overlooked:

Spark plug wires installed in correct cylinder sequence? That gets a lot of us, early on some manuals had the incorrect firing order.

Cam sensor, crank sensor - are both plugged in, is the little plate under the cam sensor installed correctly?

Is there adequate compression or is it spinning somewhat freely? If spinning, 1 teaspoon of oil in each cylinder.

Timing is good? Electrical connectors (the TPS is often missed for some reason)?

[nikolajs]

Does it feel like its about to catch or not even close?

Might be a long shot but, how long did you have the lifters out? Were they soaking in oil? One of the head rebuilds I did i think the lifters somehow got saturated with oil and valves were basically stuck open. It finally started after about an hour of cranking...

[SinusoidalTendencies]

Lifters aren't up to snuff. The majority of them wouldn't compress, even though they went straight into oil(there's was excessive clicking though before I started this). I was informed this wouldn't keep it from starting it running. Just that I would need to replace them asap. Spark plugs worked when I started this to. It ran fine actually except for the coolant building pressure until overflow/ exploding from the weakest link .it's late so I'll probably check everything again in the morning. But I checked/plugged in my relays. Battery is fine. Going to check wire connection again in the morning too. It's definitely turning(starter is making that turning the flexplate noise).

[SinusoidalTendencies]

I posted earlier about the cam and distributor rotor mounting and was told they only go in one way. Does the distributor go in different ways. Could I have hooked it up to the timing coil without a proper Connection?

[SinusoidalTendencies]

97 850 glt by the way

[rspi]

It only goes on one way, did you check the 4 (5) things necessary to start/run?

[tryingbe]

Run compression test.
Run fuel pressure test.
Do spark test.

[erikv11]

I posted earlier about the cam and distributor rotor mounting and was told they only go in one way. Does the distributor go in different ways. Could I have hooked it up to the timing coil without a proper Connection?

You were given bad advice. Sure, they only go in one way *correctly*. But either one of them can be put them in the wrong way, they will be cockeyed and offset from the position they are supposed to be in but they can definitely go in the wrong way.

Definitely check the order of the spark plug wires, that's a simple first thing to look at and cross off the list. But as stated it comes down to fuel, spark and compression (and timing).

[SinusoidalTendencies]

I did pay attention to the orientation of the guide tabs on the rotors to make sure they lined up with the slots on the back of the cams. Once I realized the tabs where offset it was pretty rudimentary. I left the distributor and plug assembly assembled. So it's the way it was to begin with. Going through the check list.