Just enough knowledge to be dangerous!

[Trickychip]

Hi everyone, I hope someone can help!

After overheating my beloved Toyota Hiace (1984, 3Y engine, YH61 series) and blowing the head gasket, I have performed a number of repairs! I removed and flushed the radiator, took the head off and had it skimmed and replaced the thermostat- probable cause of overheating. After putting everything back together I can't get her to start.

Starter motor is fine and she will turn over, I have spark and fuel in the carburettor. One problem I had was remembering where the 4 vacuum hoses into the carb went as I labelled them but later realised the previous owner had too! I found the best picture I could in my manual and followed that.

After speaking to a mechanic on the phone, apparently even if I had them in the wrong place the engine would start? Also he said I would have to check the timing? Would this have been changed? I only took the head off and not the timing belt but like I said, just enough knowledge to be dangerous!

Any help would be much appreciated, been off the road for a month now and eager to get going! Thanks for reading all!

[djshimon]

Your distributor is probably not set to proper timing. For our vans it's top dead center on the first cylinder and the distributor has to face a certain notch. There's a few threads on here about timing if you dig through. If you have the 3y it should be the same...

[Burntboot]

If you didn't pull the distributer, the timing shouldn't have been affected from what it was (and if it ran before, it should run now)
Go back over everything you touched, look for a connector that isn't fully plugged, or something left disconnected.
I am assuming you have fuel/spark...? there are several threads on checking fuel pump operation, among other things.....
It's probably something simple.