Desigan

Hi all, I'm in need of some assistance. I have a mk2 1300 gt escort. I have stripped, cleaned and rebuilt the engine. I had lined the cam and crankshaft according to the Ford escort workshop manual. To start it I had done the following: I had brought cylinder 1 one to TDC with the cylinder 1 valves in the closed position, inlet valve about to open on the next cycle. Cylinder 4 was open. I had then set the distributor to number one (on the heal of number one) where its about to open on the next cycle. I had connected the plug leads according to the escort mk2 manual firing order. Distributor cap, condenser, points, plugs all new parts. Plugs lead were tested with a multimeter and reads around 28000 ohms. (also to add, I had previously tested the coils and distributor inside the house using a car battery) it fires 100 percent. For the carburetor, the car didn't come with one. I have a Webber which doesn't work. So I had put in a Toyota carburetor. I had a engineering company make a base plate which is 30mm thick (around 25mm thicker than the original one). It was made using the exact same material of the old base plate. The reason for the thicker plate was to allow for the accelator cable to clear on the intake manifold. So I installed this with longer bolts and both payen gaskets from the full gasket set that was used to rebuild the engine. When I had tried to start, I had poured a little fuel into the carburetor (about 5ml in each barrel) I had then connected the fuel lines as normal. The car swings and throws out what looks like mist through the carb throat. After a while a flame came out the carb. I tried again and it does the same. Any advice on what could be causing this would be most welcome. Could the thicker base plate cause this problem, could it be the carburetor?

Thanks, I still have to remove the radiator and have it painted black. I put it in to try and start up but I'm unfortunately having some challenges. Hoping to rectify soon

Hi, I am Desigan. I am from Durban, South Africa. I have a 1976 Ford Escort MK2. It's a 2 door, 1.3 engine with a 4 speed gearbox. I've bought it 2 years ago but have only started restoring it this year. To date I have painted the engine compartment, rebuilt the engine and had it re installed into the car. I have attempted to start the car but it swings and wont start. I've checked the engine is getting fuel, the firing order is correct and both the coil and distributor is firing as per normal. I had a mechanic come see me yesterday who had said that the valve clearance could be tight and therefore the car wont start. He did swop the plugs wires and got the engine to miss fire or back fire. Is it possible that the valve clearance would cause the engine to not start up?