Okay my sixteen year old son and I took my motor apart and rebuilt it the last few weeks. Finally got it all together and back in this morning at 3:30 am. Put new oil and coolant in it. Tried starting it. Turns over and has spark at the coil and distributor but won't start up. Checked battery and starter. Battery no good so got new and starter fine. Still cranks over slowly and won't start. Anyone got any ideas?

 

is this a 2.4 or 3.0?
do the spark plugs get spark and what do the spark plugs look like? are they black or clean

also does it get gas/fuel? are the injectors new or old they could be plugged
theres a lot that could be wrong its just a method of troubleshooting it down one thing at a time

 

Ok, I too am a teenager who tore down a motor and put it back together over the last few weeks. I probably ran into the same problems you did/are. If it's a 3vze (3.0 V6) then I may be able to help. My guess would be timing related, assuming you have all your plugs sparking and fuel coming in right. The distributor may be timed on the exhaust stroke instead of compression. I did that and it wouldn't start for anything. Definatley check that all your battery cables are in good shape and all your grounds are clean. A visual inspection isn't good enough. The slow cranking starter makes me suspect that.

 

Brand new spark plug and its a 4 cyl. motor with fuel injection. The injectors haven't been changed. Three weeks ago the truck ran and started fine, but white smoke came out of exhaust. New from past experience the head gasket needed changing. From there it became a rebuild

 

timing, spark, fuel/air, and compression. that's where I would start, probably with fuel since you have spark, but other than that like silentbounty said it could be timing.

 

This might be a dumb question but is literally everything back together? If you didn't put the air intake back on then the truck won't start. The VAFM needs to send a reading to the ecu or else the fuel pump won't cut on. Just a thought.