I wish I could be there for 1/2 hour I could teach you stuff that would save you DAYS
1...YOU DO NOT screw with timing, "try this or that". You DETERMINE where you are, and set it and IT WILL RUN.......unless the timing chain is wrong, or you have a reverse grind cam, or some other unforseen..................stuff
2....START WITH a piston stop to make certain the timing marks are actually correct. I made this one in about 1974 you can buy them
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Remove the battery ground for safety, remove no 1 plug, and make sure the piston is "down a ways." Screw the stop device in. Carefully wrench the engine around until it stops on the device. Make a temporary mark under the 0 mark on the tab onto the damper. Rotate the engine around backwards until it stops again, make a second mark under TDC.
Now you will have two temporary marks and true TDC will be halfway in between. If the original mark is correct, that is where it will be
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SETTING TIMING.
Establish no1 ready to fire, IE "compression stroke." There are only TWO WAYS to do this
A.......Remove no1 plug, stick your finger in, bump the starter until you feel compression. Now wrench the engine around "watching for" the timing marks coming up. DO NOT SET the marks on TDC!!! Set them instead "where you want" the timing to be, AKA 10-15 BTC or so on a stocker, maybe 15-20 OR MORE BTC with a "hotter" cam
B........Second way is if one or both valve covers is off. Rotate engine to TDC on marks, look at no1 and no6 valves and SEE WHICH SET is closed. Be careful, other two will be "close to equally open." Move the engine a small amount to see which set moves. The closed pair will not. If no1 is closed, then no1 is "ready."
NOW put the dist in with rotor pointing to where you want no1 plug wire. If the distributor tang is different from "the book" don't sweat it, it will run WHEREVER it points as long as you "make that" the no1 tower.
Next rotate the dist CW (small block) to RETARD the dist, and then rotate slowly back CCW (advanced) until
the points just open if you have points
or the reluctor is in the center of the pickup coil
Double check the rotor is at the tower where no1 plug wire is inserted.
NOW PUT A LITTLE FUEL IN THERE AND START IT UP
