engine wont start

[fast90mini]

We built a 355 sbc engine,with rhoads lifters for a vaccume rule, started up and ran fine, adjusted the valves and shut down for a cool down period, started up and ran 8 to 10 more times, battery was weak so we changed the battery and was hooked up backwards, when main power switch was turned on we saw smoke and shut it off and switched the battery ends around and motor will not restart, no melted wires can be found and we replaced the distributer and the coil and cap, has fire and gas and will not start, we ran a hot wire from the battery to the coil plug in on the top of the cap, still not starting, changed spark plugs, coil, and rotor, has a weak orange spark and will not start, we also check timing and it's ok, when the motor is turning over you can turn the distributer advanced or retarted and don't change the bogg on the engine, we are stumped on this, we have tried everything we know and still won't start up, we also checked for weak ground and ran jumper cables from engine to frame and still nothing, this should started when we ran a direct hot from the battery to the coil, any ideas on this, I was told that the lifters may not be opening the valves, but when the plugs were pulled they were damp. thanks for ANY pointers.

[fast_crew]

Check compression or just hold you finger near the spark plug hole to see if valves are operating. Sounds like you fried something though, you have swapped out the entire distributor with a known good one? Unhook the tach, you may have fried it and that could be pulling the voltage down. If the car has an alternator that is most likely where the smoke was from, unhook that as well as that maybe pulling the voltage down. Good luck and let us know what you find.

[usafracer]

Sounds like you have a weak ground. Run a new one from the battery to the motor.

[fast90mini]

Well we haved changed everyting on the engine, we pulled a distrubitor from a runnig sportsman car and still the same thing, checked compression and was good, the wire that was running to the altenator was bumped on the exaust and we tried to re fire and it started up, don't know if arking the altenator wire sent a ground back or what, still puzzled on it but it started up, we will rewire the car and hope it works, thanks for the help.