pitman86gt

Ok i had to take my heads off of my engine and pull the distributor out. I marked it before hand, but i had to crank the motor over several times with the dissy out to fix a problem. Now i need to put it back in and dont quite understand my hayes manual. it says to set the #1 piston at top dead center which i understand how to do, but it says to make sure its on the compression stroke. manual says to to make sure rotar button is pointed to #1, but if i have it out thats not going to work. need to know if its tdc on compression stroke and then slide it back in with rotary button pointed to #1. Does this sound right or how do i tell if im at the compression stroke with the heads off. If so tell me a step by step. sorry im an idiot.

Quik

assemble motor... then stick finger over the plug hole for number one. when it blows your finger out its on the compression stroke. also look at the 0 mark on the balancer and make sure it lines up with the pointer for timing. then have the rotor facing about 10 clock before you drop it in. when it drops it should be about 12 oclock and that should be dead on. fire it up and if it pops then its off 180 then just spin motor over by hand and leave dist in there. once itgoes 180 it will be about 6oclock. then just pull it out and drop it in on the other side. its really a simple deal

go time the car after it runs and see where the marks are. for a base reference there is a notch in the dist and a notch on the block for base timing of 10* thats the starting point

angcobra

If you have the heads off now, why are you trying to put the distributor in?
After you have the heads and intake on, valve cover off, the best way to make sure you get to TDC on #1, rotate the engine using a pull handle and socket on the balancer nut. Rotate clockwise until you see the intake rocker for #1 go down and then back up, then continue rotating until you align 0 on balancer with pointer. The puts you TDC on #1 for compression stroke.

pitman86gt

im not. i just figured it would be easier to tell if number one was at tdc if i had the head of being i could see the piston comming up. and that is what i was thinking of doing to find compression stroke angcobra. Hayes made it seem to complicated. that is the way i did it on my 4cyl inboard motor on my boat.

lxstang5_0

HAYES MANUALS SUCK ***. i bought one and it didnt even have in there tht there was an air silencer in my car. lol i didnt need it to take it out but they are still ****

angcobra

Having the head off does not help with finding the compression stroke. The piston strokes to TDC on both the compression and the exhaust stroke. The deciding factor as to which is compression and which is exhaust is the timing of the valves done with camshaft timing. The intake valve opens on the intake stroke and then the intake valve closes for the combustion stroke.