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Hi Gang:
Well.... I've been hiding for a while. I've had my M-37 for 15 years and put over 80,000 miles on her. last spring she laid down and I didn't have the time or money to fix her at the time (had more time than money). Fortunes have changed just enough to allow me to rebuild my engine. I went top drawer this time and did EVERYTHING. I even had the mains line honed. This is only the second engine I've ever built, but I have the books, and went slowly. A shameless plug here: if you don't have the books GET THEM!

Now to the bad news... It won't start. I have fuel at the carb and the ignition timing looks good. By tweeking the distributor I can get her to bark, but it acts like a valve is open. I did a compression check and #2 is low. I am in the process of checking the valve settings and I obviously missed something. at least one of them in the front half is WAY too far open. That means I'll need to check all of them, but that's as far as I got tonight. I also found a post recommending the removal of the front wheel. I'll bet that happens before I'm finished too.

This brings me to my question: some where, I thought it was here, I found a list of which valves could be adjusted at the two top centers. Reffering here to TDC on compression and exhaust. Those two points should get all 12 valves, but I don't remember which ones can be done at which center. I've searched here with all the parameters I could think of and didn't find that info. I DID find a bit of variation in the discussion on cold settings. The range was from .009 to .015. What's right? I think my book says .010 and .013. I think I'd rather have them not open quite so far than to not close all the way when hot.

Any help greatly appreciated

A clairification that may help us,
When you say 2 is low, explain, 10#, 50#, 90#, what is the reading?
Bark, as in just a backfire and kickback? Or does it make a revolution or two and try to catch?

MY FRIEND I WONDER, IF IT HAS TO DO WITH THE VALVES, WHY DOES IT BARK WHEN YOU TWEAK THE DISTRIBUTOR? ASSUMING YOU HAVE ADDEQUATE FUEL, I WOULD SUSPECT A FAULTY DISTRIBUTOR MORE THAN A VALVE ISSUE, I HAVE HAD MY M START AND RUN ON 3 CYLINDERS ONCE, BECAUSE THE OTHER THREE PLUGS HAD TOO MUCH OIL ON THEM. IT RUN ROUGH AND BACKFIRED A LOT, WITH NO POWER WHATSOEVER TO MOVE OUT OF ITS OWN WAY, BUT IT DID FIRE UP. IF ONE, OR TWO OF YOUR CYLINDERS HAVE LOW COMPRESSION I THINK YOU WOULD STILL BE ABLE TO FIRE UP IN THE REST 4?? IF I WAS FACED WITH YOUR PROBLEM THERE, I WOULD FIRST GO THROUGH THE DISTRIBUTOR THOUROUGHLY. ALSO IF YOU TRY TO CHECK THE VALVES, YES, REMOVE THE FRONT RIGHT WHEEL, AND IF POSSIBLE THE SIDE PANEL WHERE THE LIGHT WIRES RUN ON. UNLESS YOU HAVE ARMS WITH MORE WRISTS THAN ONE PER EACH, IT IS A PAIN TO GET IN THE VALVE OPENINGS. UNFORTUNATELY I CAN NOT HELP YOU WITH THE VALVE SETTING SECIFICATIONS. I HAVE ALL MY DATA AT GREECE. GOOD LUCK FRIEND

>When you say 2 is low, explain, 10#, 50#, 90#, what is the reading?<

#2 at 30, every thing else at 90+. I haven't rechecked compression, but it runs too well to have a dead hole.

>YES, REMOVE THE FRONT RIGHT WHEEL, AND IF POSSIBLE THE SIDE PANEL WHERE THE LIGHT WIRES RUN ON. UNLESS YOU HAVE ARMS WITH MORE WRISTS THAN ONE PER EACH, IT IS A PAIN TO GET IN THE VALVE OPENINGS.<

I have the whole front sheet metal off. I can't see any other sane way to do this much work on the engine. Even with the front clip off, the wheel is still a good idea.

OK: turn on the IDIOT light. I looked at the picture of the oil pump,in the TO, and got it backward (180 out). I did adjust the valves and found some that were out of spec. I did the first valve adjust while it was still partly assembled, on the stand, and probably didn't get the lifters pushed all the way down tight to the cam. I got it to run, but oil pressure was low (20Lb) and that was not good enough for me on a fresh engine. I had the bottom off the pump to inspect it. I did not have the square "O" ring, so I just re assembled it. That obviously was not the right answer because now it weeps. I now have my spare pump in place and new batteries too. Once again, it won't start,. This time I'm into the distributor. I don't see anything REAL wrong, but there are a few things that I'm not happy with, so now I'll go through that. I often tell people that you get the distributor in upside down, it'll TRY to start and then you can work from there. It seems that's where I'm starting from.

If I HAVE to "bend wrenches" this is still my favorite machine to do it on.

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll keep posting as I go along.

30 lbs is very low. Has this come up since you adjusted the valves? If not there could be a seat issue. Do a leakdown test on that cylinder. Something is amisss. 90#'s on the rest? I was at 110 with my fresh bores before run in. About 130 after a little run in. Probably higher now as she pops right off and runs strong.
Isolate the compression issue first. 20psi oil pressure on a cold engine is low. This can be many things. As far as the oil pump leak, make sure to true up the oil pump cover plate as well when you install the o-ring. I used a very thin coat of flange sealant around the housing edges as well with the square o ring. No leaks. Good Luck. Keep us posted.