I need a clear discription of what to align these marks to. i have the harmonic balancer on 0 and it looks like the keyway on the cam are at 12:00 but the engine wont start. Any advice?

 

Put the timing mark on the crank on the zero. Take valve cover off and make sure both valves for the front piston(#1) are loose or can be wiggled. If one r both are tight go around again. Your looking for the compression stroke. Once you get that right, pull the distributor cap and look and see where your rotor button is pointing. Should be about where number 1 plug wire attaches to the cap. If not pull it out and make small adjustments til it is. Once It is put it all back together and hit the key. If it tries to fire or struggles rotate the distributor back and forth til it smooths out. If it won't smooth out your a tooth off on the distributor. Pull it out move it over a tooth to get it lined up dead ass with where number 1 on the cap is.

 

K thanks. The cam, is the keyway the spot that needs to be at 12? or the dot on the sprocket? or is there some other mark? there was one behind the sprocket but it wasnt lined up with the keyway. any ideas?

 

Dot on the sprocket my friend needs to be at 12. Did you replace a timing chain or something?

 

Yeah did the head gasket and figured I might as well change it.

 

If you have your marks lined up .also check your distributor make sure your not 180 out

 

Well the timing chain has 2 off
Colored links. They need to line up initially with the dot on the crank gear facing down or 6 o clock and the cam gear dot or dimple facing 12 oclock. Again, make sure the forward most rockers are loose or can be wiggled. If one is tight then ur on the wrong stroke. Rotate crank 360 bringing the notch on the crank pulley around to the 0 again. Then both rocker arms can be wiggled. This means compression stroke. On the compression stroke is where spark is introduce to the cylinder so make sure your rotor button in the distributor points to where number 1 is on the dist cap. If not pull it out rotate it a bit then push it bAck in. All the while watching to make sure it turns an points to 1 when all the way in. You'll notice th bolt hole is slotted to allow for advance/retarding to fine tune the timing. Should fire up. If not text me. Pm me ask for my number if ya need it. Don't forget to set your valve lash too.

 

Well it was 180 out and it's running good now. Heavy ticking when accelerating but I forgot to set valve gap. I am gonna set it next time I get a minute. Thank you so much for your help.

 

Great job. Now you'll know forever how to do it!