00 cherokee engine swap, problems!

Alright, well I got a 2000 xj without a motor in it. I bought a 98 block and used all of my stuff from my 00 block. I used the block and head, and I had the head resurfaced, a valve job, new valve seals, and hot tanked. I cleaned up the block and put new gaskets in it all the way around.

Now my problem is this. When I go to start it it rolls over. It sounds like a boat motor gurgling every couple seconds. Usually when you let off on turning it over it fires up and runs good. No gauges work and I have a NO BUS that comes accross the odometer. I searched around on here and I found a few possible causes.
1.) A bad ground somewhere.
2.) A corroded connection behind the dash
3.) Bad CPS

Now a guy at work said when I put in the cam syncronizer or interupter whatever it is called he said I may have put it in 180 degrees wrong. He said it shouldn't be able to run though if I did this, which it does, but it sounds like a boat gurgling and only starts when you stop rotating the motor and the instant you do it fires usually.
He also said to check my grounds. I am going to go through and clean the fresh paint off the block where the grounds are. I cleaned the grounds with a wire brush already but not the block, just the wire ends.

Now does it sound like I have a single common problem here or a few? As for installing the cam syncronizer I never dissassembled the timing chain or cover and the motor ran before I put it in. I rotated the motor to 0 degrees on the timing cover and dropped the cam sync in and it seated properly, should i pull it out and rotate the motor over again and then re install it?

Also after shutting the motor off and manually opening the throttlebody flapper it looks like fog coming out of the intake...is that normal?

Any advice anyone can give me would really make me happy! Thank-you!

If it was cranking okay, I wouldn't suspect your grounds at all.

Having the cam synch or whatever (the thing that replaced the distributor) off 180 degrees will make it run like crap like you describe... from what I've seen anyways.

Are you sure you had the motor at 0 degrees on the compression stroke, not on the exhaust stroke? Since it's a 4 stroke motor, the piston comes to TDC twice per cycle, once after the exhaust stroke and once after the compression stroke.

EDIT: as for the NO BUS, that sounds like an electrical connection you have loose or maybe your ECU or CPS is dead.

I am thinking I put the cam sync in when it was on its exhaust stroke...so how would i go about putting it on the other stroke? take it out..and rotate the motor until it comes up to 0 degrees on the timing cover again?

nickastaldo said:

If it was cranking okay, I wouldn't suspect your grounds at all.

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It may have a good engine-battery ground, but a bad engine->chassis connection. Easy thing to check just by snapping a jumper cable on the battery ground to a good spot on the chassis.