So this engine shat on me and number 4 piston and head was destroyed. So bored out pistons, ground the crank, new head, among other stuff. well I'm a little slow and had a lot of trouble figuring this timing out. got the new LCE cam gear and I'm not sure which mark to go by. The original one has the notch along with the nipple. Do I have this right or no? The motor is very hard to turn, is this normal?

 

With new rings and bearings that aren't worn and beat up the engine will be harder to turn initially.

Timing looks fine but why not adjust the gear nice you have it? Advance the cam for more bottom end, retard the cam for more top end power.

 

Yeah I could. I don't exactly know what the 2 LCE race settings are for. This is going to be my free time/street truck

 

Those other timing marks coincide with lce camshafts. If you had an lce race #1 cam you'd use that set of marks etc.