Hi first time post here.. hope you guys can help our confussion, we have no where else to turn. Well as far as it goes we are timing it right. Turning the crank and raising the #1 cylinder all the way up and that lines up on our harmonic balancer at TDC. We then set our rotor on the #1 spark plug, and try to fire and nothing. Then we pull the distributor out and rotate the rotor to the #6 spark plug wire and it fires up but runs very poorly, acts like a missfire,cant give it any gas or it sputters and stalls.When using a timing light on the #6 wire its irratic and not consistant. Guess thats it, if you guys have any answers I would really appreciate it.This car has stock ignition, just replaced points, cap, rotor, plugs, wires, and ignition coil. Only modifications we have done are 600cfm carb, and intake manifold, headers soon to be here.

 

Hiya ...
from what I read you figured so much as the timing could be 360degrees out.
All windsor blocks seem to have the number 6 as 5th cylinder to ignite (180degrees on distributor), no matter from the firing order.
So from that it all seems right so far.

The very first thing is to remove the vacuum advance from distributor (disconnect on distributor side and block the hose with a screw)

The second thing is to check the firing order, depending on the cam you might have picked the wrong one.
Did you check the exact firing order before you pulled all the cables ?
Are they connected the right way round (rotor turns counter clock wise)

Try the following two firing orders:
1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8
1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8 (i know this is from a 351w, but some cams use that firing order)

if you're lucky then this is already it.

If that's not it, i'd:
- pull the valve covers
- turn engine by hand so TDC is marked on harmonic balancer
- verify if cylinder 1 (that's the front left when looking at engine) has both valves closed (compression)
both valves closed means play on the rockers (you can rattle them, they don't press the vavle down)
- if not, turn the engine another 360 degrees
if both valves are closed then, then this is your #1TDC. Pull your distri and point the rotor to where you want to place #1 spark plug.
(in most cases that's at 1 o'clock position when looking at distri)
- then slowly crank the engine to see which cylinder is the next to compress (both valves closed).
this way you should get the proper firing order.

Kalli

 

any luck?

 

He's out driving around probably....