my timing is off a little i think. how do i tell? how do i adjust it?

 

Alot of us can tell my ear but youll prob need a timing light.And to adjust,you loosen the distrubtor hold down then turn it.

 

i know at autozone you can rent some tools can u rent one there? i dont have the money to buy 1

 

honestly i dont believe that you can rent one but it wouldnt hurt to call and ask.I know some old tricks to get timing really really close with out a light or even starting it . One of course just being cranking it over to TDC and making sure the timing mark lines up but the other is a lil difficult to explain unless you already have the idea of what youre doing.

 

ok how do i turn crank it over? and wut is the tdc and were are the timimg marks?

 

will a simple one like this work? http://www.autozone.com/selectedZip,.../selectZip.htm

 

you can get a timing light from sears. One like this should work http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1...d=timing+light

also, advanced auto has one for $35

 

k i got one how do i use it? the instrustions suck.. i dont have any lines on my belt and i dont have an harmonic balancer.. can some one just walk me through it plz?

 

Y dont you have a harmonic???? tak the coil wire off and make sure nothing is going to ground it. Take the #1 spark plug out then stick your finger in the hole,have a buddy turn the key just to get it start to crank(real quick)when the pressure tries to blow your finger back that should be tdc but with out a harmonic you couldnt tell.Now back to the harmonic..y again dont you have one?

 

I highly doubt you dont have a harmonic balancer. WITH THE ENGINE OFF. Get down underneath you car, and have a look at the pulley. the lowest one. that is bolted with either three of four bolts to a round disk. that round disc is your harmonic balancer. these often get very diry with oil and dirt, so get a rag soaked in kero, or petrol, and clean in up as well as you can. there should be a few lines marked on it. one of these will either have TDC or '0' on it. This indicated the Top Dead Centre Position when lines up to the pointer.
Now on a samll block, there is a finger coming from the timing cover, which 'points' to these harmonic balancer marks, its called the pointer. Im not exactly sure where this is on a 390. someone else on here will help you with that if you cant find it. when you do, clean it too.
Now to use the timing light. Put up a link to the actual type you bough. We need to know if it uses an inductor or if its diredt plug in.
While you at it take some shots of your engine and put those up too.
this is going to be a drawn out process over the net.