OK well I have a nice motor for what I paid. Only problem is that the place I bought it from went belly up and there was no timing marker on it. Long story short, I have no idea what my timing is.

I have a ATI damper so it has the #s scribed on, problem is I don't know where to have the pointer facing, since all are adjustable. I don't trust the stock stamped ones either.

So is there any clever way to get the motor back to exactly 0*, so I can set the timing tab?

Thanks for any ideas.

-Dennis

 

Use a piston stop in the spark plug hole.

 

I know they exist, but I still don't get how to use them.



Would I just thread this thing in... then slowly turn the motor over by hand till it hits it.... then unthread a little.... see if it hits it..... unthread a little more.... see if it hits it, then when it doesnt go back a tinny bit, let it hit and call that 0 degrees????

thanks.

 

No, thread it in and turn the engine over by hand until it hits, mark the balancer. Turn the engine over in the other direction until it hits again, mark the balancer again. Divide the distance between the two marks in half. That's TDC.

 

Easier way - take off the balancer and look at the key for the crank. IIRC, the key position on the balancer will tell you where the marker has to be.

(the key is the slot on the inside, where it slides onto the crank snout)

 

Install the piston stop. Remove the rockers for that cylinder or the valves will hit the stop. Remove the other 7 plugs to make turning the engine over easier.

Install the degree wheel and use something as a pointer on the wheel.

Bar the engine over one way until the piston hits the stop and record the reading. Bar the engine over the other way until the piston hits the stop and record the reading. What the reads are is irrelevant. You just need 2 readings to find half way between them. When at one stop, you could adjust the pointer to zero on the degree wheel for a start point. When you rotate it in the other direction, lets say it stop at 90*. Half way between will be 45* but you can't rotate the engine to 45* until you remove the piston stop.

Rotate the engine until it's at the half way mark on the degree wheel. Check to see where the pointer on the balancer is.

 

Well I don't have a degree wheel or have the ability to attach one since the motor is in the car and all bottoned up. I can though, throw in the piston stop with no plugs and do the turn clockwise, hit/mark on my ATI balancer, (while using my existing pointer as a refrecnce),then rotate counter clockwise and mark the ATI again. 1/2 should be the TDC. Move the motor to that mark.

Once there, when I turn my motor on, the number that I see flashing by the refrence line will be what base timing I have.

Correct me if anything I said was wrong or if I interpreted some advice or step in the wrong way. Thanks guys, can't wait to try this in the morning.

 

That's the idea.

You can use the "zero" of the damper to mark the timing tab in each direction. Half-way between the marks is now the "zero" on the timing tab.