No start, drains brand new battery quickly

[Bsmith153]

hey Guys,  I just pulled my 124" and replaced the head gaskets. Now It wont start. It has spark and is getting Fuel. It started for a couple seconds and sounded like it was running on 1 cylinder. I bought a brand new Duracell Battery with 479 cca and killed it pretty quick, in the opinion  of my buddy and me.  Ill admit i dont even know where to start. Any ideas, tips, black magic,  voodoo or a genie would be appreciated, thx.  I also have checked fuses, all plugs are plugged it,  and no wiring issues thatvi can see.  Spark, air and fuel = run.

[Scotty]

Any obvious things like are the pushrods adjusted correctly? 124" did it have compression releases are they connected?
Generally if you have spark and fuel you are missing oxygen and incorrect pushrods mean valves not opening and closing means no oxygen.

[Bsmith153]

I didnt mess with the pushrod adjustments, but I will go over them and recheck them, thanks, i never thought about that. It has Manual compression releases. Also.

[smoserx1]

Didn't get intake and exhaust pushrods mixed up by chance?  Intake seals on correctly (flat side to head, tapered toward throttle, at least the old ones were)?  That's about all I can think of.

[Bsmith153]

I never even thought about doing a Compression test. You do something 50 times and all of a sudden the 51st time somethings different and your brain says "no I did it the same way". Well this time I apparently didnt. 

[Hossamania]

As far as your battery goes, did you charge it up completely before using it?

[PoorUB]

As far as your battery goes, did you charge it up completely before using it?

Yep, you should charge them before putting them into use. More so when you are going to torture it right from the start.

[speedzter]

Plug leads reversed ?
It happens 

[Ohio HD]

Plug leads reversed ?
It happens 

This was my first thought as well.

[Bsmith153]

I moved my coil to where the horn bracket was between the jugs so i know they aren't reversed. Stock location i could definitely see it happening.