alright i've checked it when it was built and again - advancing it for base when i rotate it up to like 20 on the dampner it sounds so smooth and nice, but right now it's at 12.. which is leading me to believe the timing might be slightly.. slightly off.

now, how can i actually achieve this with the heads on and such, i know the old pull #1 plug and watch the rotor as u crank the engine and feel for the compression.

now.. when exactly is the actually compression.. when u first feel the air? when it pushes then stops pushing air? in the middle? what?

also i heard varying stories about the rotor. it should be 1/2 way between 12 and 1 o clock (or 1/2 way to #1) on the compression stroke so when it cranks it will hit #1 on the rotor..

i'm confused, all i did was line the timing marks up on the timing chain and such and stuffed it all in there but i think i might be slightly off.. so anyone help?

 

As I understand you, start by confirming TDC. This is done by manually turning the crank until the rotor is aligned with the #1 plug. Then to fine tune exact TDC, stick a screwdriver into the sparkplug hole and gently rest it against the surface of the piston. Have someone else slowly rotate the crank (by hand of course) and you will fell and see the srewdriver go either down or up. Rotate the crank so that the piston is at the very highest point (the point at which any roataion either clockwise or counterclockwise will cause the screw driver to sink in deeper). Now mark the crank face with a white mark where the index for TDC is. If this mark does not match the factor mark for TDC, then you more than likely have the distributor installed off a tooth or so. If this is the case, the fix is pretty obvious...if you have questions, let me know.

 

yeah i figured i'd do that tomorrow when i change the plugs - ill go with putting a rod in it since it'll be harder i got P heads on it - i think it might be slightly off i might of clipped it just as its ending the compression stroke so i'm off a little :|

 

That's not going to get you exact TDC.With the procedure you're outlining the problem is that the piston spends a relatively long time at the top of the cylinder. It's not going to be possible to tell exactly when the piston starts movingdown the cylinder. You need some form of piston stop to properly find TDC on a slipped balancer. I can explain how to do this, but I don't think you really need to worry about it.

The problem with your theory, Salik, is that advancing the timing at idle will tend make it idle smoother as well as increase the idle speed. This is especially true for cams with a lot of valve overlap. One common trick to get hot cams to idle well is to plug the vacuum advance into full manifold vacuum, giving you a lot of advance at idle.

On first startup, all you need to do is get the rotor pointed to the #1 plug wire when the piston is at TDC on the compression stroke, which you seem to have done already. If you don't get it right, it won't fire up and will likely backfire. Generally you'll need to twist the distributor while cranking the engine, then set the timing with a light when you get it fired up. If it's set with the light, it can't be 'a tooth off' because you've already corrected for that by turning the distributor.

Leave the initial advance at 12* and check the total advance and the rpm where it stops.

 

aye. the only way to know for certain is to us a piston stop like:
http://store.summitracing.com/partde...p;autoview=sku
(make sure that you have the proper thread so it fits to your spark plug holes).
Reason is as Starfury says you cannot make out where the exact top is as the piston will be at top for a good few degrees.
but you can check with a screwdriver as Torkfastback says to see if you're in the ballpark.
I'm with Starfury: when I advance to total 20 (no vac connected), the engine runs great, but try revving the engine under load (accellerating on a steep hill) with that .... pingapingpingpinggggggg ... (don't!) as you'll have the total advance at 50degrees then (tooo mjuch) ...

Kalli