First time start - no go

Bl1zzard said

No she was dry as a bone. The last time it was registered was 1985. I think it's been under restoration since then. I'm not sure how long ago the engine was rebuilt, but the carb was dry. It wasn't even installed when I bought the car, it was in a box in the back seat. It squirts pretty nicely when I hit the gas, so I pretty sure it's getting gas properly.

I haven't test spark in a large gap, only with the spark plug in open air.

Click to expand...

OK, good on the fuel. I have no idea if there could be any residue that could come out of the system, but my best guess is that you are OK with just dumping new fuel in there.

BTW, as for fuel questions, a sure way to get past any fueling questions is to simply:

• put in a fresh set of plugs
• dump about 1 teaspoon of fresh fuel straight down the carb primaries
• open the carb up a small amount and see if it will fire.
  
• If it does not, then go look for ignition or other problems.

Please take my advice on the spark testing; I am not just making this up. Spark across a spark plug gap in open is totally meaningless for what is needed to fire the mixture in the engine; it takes 5 to 10 times as much spark voltage to jump that same small gap in a compressed fuel-air mixture. Looking at the spark across a spark plug gap in open air is good to see if the system is triggering at all, but does not tell you anything useful about the level of spark voltage. You can can have a bad coil and get weak sparks but it will not fire the engine. Your symptoms indicate that this is possible.