Quote:
Originally Posted by oldgold70c10
What kind of cam have you got?
If you get yourself a remote starter, disconnect the bat wire from your distributor, you can take out the no. 1 spark plug and crank it over with your finger over the spark plug hole. You should feel it blow air out on the compression stroke, and as it stops blowing, you should watch to see if the line on the damper is anywhere near the pointer.
You can also get a gadget that screws in the spark plug hole that will help you find TDC, but I'll let others chime in on that because I've never used one.
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Unfortunately I don't know what cam is in the engine. This has been a major problem so far. The engine was timed 4.5 adv when I got the truck, and the timing plate has white paint on the 4 degree advance mark. There's also a white paint mark on the balancer separate of the TDC line, but I assume that was a slip when marking the plate.
When I reinstalled the distributor I used the loose #1 spark plug method and cranked from the cab until I heard a hiss. I went to the engine compartment, TDC mark was at 1 degree retarded on the plate, and I could feel the top of the piston through the spark plug hole with a wire. It was incredibly lucky and seemed to suggest that the mark was accurate. But how on earth could the engine run at ~60 degrees advanced?
I am willing to accept that the PO was a dolt, and everything on this motor could be completely fubar. It ran before the work I performed, but I wouldn't say it ran well. I had attributed this to the ailing 2GC carb and weak ignition.