I swapped my head on my car, everything done right, its just a redone version of the stock one. new gasket, everything should be sealed up good as far as the head gasket goes, i was very good about keeping everything clean and that. i put the #1 cyl at TDC, lined up my cam gear marks, and put the thing on. got it all together, and the car wouldnt start. so i turned my distributor 180 degrees thinking i mighta done it backward..............now the car runs, but it sounds like it's got a cam in it. i took out the spark plugs and spun the crank to make sure it's not knocking. it doesnt seem to bind anywhere, like if the valves were hitting the pistons. it just doesnt have the correct timing somewhere, as far as i can hear/see.

if i drive the car, it runs like crap and when i go over 4500 rpm the check engine light comes on. if i turn the car off and back on, the check eng. light turns off until i go over 4500 again. anybody know what i've done wrong? the plugs look white, and it sounds like the ignition timing is firing on the exhaust stroke to me...........it has no power and stumbles all through the powerband.

when my car wouldnt start i turned the dizzy 180 degrees, but then i noiced my cam wasnt timed right in the first place cuz i didnt put tension on the right side of the timing belt so it turned it a gear or 2.............so i brought that back to where it should be and now i think that the car is igniting fuel as it's trying to leave the cylynders (like the fuel is intaked, nothing happens on the compression stroke, and on the exhaust stroke it ignites the fuel as it's leaving the combustion chamber so it will run but it runs like ****) pls help!

 

I usally get the crank and cams lined up where they need to be. put the belt on tighten the tensioner a lil turn the crank over a few rotations then tighten the tensioner the rest of the way.

I know you say you lined the crank and cam gear up but did you double check and see if everything is lining up after you put the belt on and turned the motor over a few times (The reason i ask this is because ive timed a few motors and everything seemed to be lining up. however after turning the motor over a few rotations the cam was off a tooth)

Is this on a single cam? Did yo make sure the cam gear was in the up position when you timed it?