Hello all,

I know there is a lot of information about this, but I'm still a bit confused.

I have to remove the intake from my car in order to fix an oil leak and I'd like to do it with as little as hassle as possible.

When it comes to the distributor, I think I'm supposed to mark the inside of it where the rotor points, then put a mark on the outside and the intake so that when I go to put it back together, I line the marks up and it *should* be close. Is that correct?

I've read so many posts about moving the oil pump, cranking the engine, etc. that I think I'm over thinking this.

 

You need to mark the position of the body so you can get its rotation back to about the same spot; and the direction the rotor was pointing at the instant it stopped turning as you pull it out, which will be quite different from where it was when it was all the way in.

Don't bother marking where the rotor was pointing with the dist fully installed, as that's not at all where it has to be as you begin to put it back in. You could mark that spot for reference to make sure that's where it ends back up, but you need to mark th eother so you can start it back in.

As long as you DO NOT turn the engine while doing this, that's all you need.

If you DO turn the engine, then you'll need to find the instance of #1 TDC that is its firing point (making sure that it's not the instance of #1 TDC that's where the exh valve is closing and the int is opening), mess with the oil pump, etc. Best to avoid that if possible.

 

My advice is this, have a friend help you bump the engine over, remove #1 plug, put finger over #1 hole. while friend bumps engine over to put rotor pointing to #1 cylinder on compression stroke, and balancer on 0 on the timing tab. then when you remove the dist it should go right back in the same way, you can mark just below the rotor and then mark the base of the dist and the block so the lines will match back up when dist is reinstalled, this should put you as close to where it was when you took it out.

 

Thanks for the quick replies - I'm going to go tackle this now.

 

remember whatever you do, don't crank engine after you remove the dist!