289/302 Questions

[dogma_5]

Please bear with me. I bought a 66 coupe that was almost ready to run. I have since got it running and street legal. Kind of fun to drive around. Here are my questions.

I went to try and verify the timing and that is were the fun began. I have been told that the engine is a 289. But I have found out that it has 302 heads. Also the water pump appears to be a 302? The draw hose from the radiator is on the right bottom when facing the car. The hose comes up right in front of the fuel pump and goes into the water pump. What this means is the timing marker that I believe that should be on the fuel pump side of the engine is not viewable. On the alternator side of the engine there is a marker. My harmonic balancer has two paint marks on it, one at 6 degrees and one some distance CCW from there. If I use the timing marker, there is no way to get the engine to run right if I try to use the 6 Degree mark. If I use the other mark it runs pretty well. Has any seen this or know what I am talking about? Also, if I were to change the balancer how do you get the other timing mark on it?

Please give me some thoughts, they are appreciated.

Take care,
Ron

 

[danny clemens]

We were discussing something similar to what you're talking about here http://forums.stangnet.com/showthread.php?t=719070 You could file or scratch a very small mark on your balancer. Some of the new balancers come with different sets of timing marks for different applications.

 

[D.Hearne]

Either of two things happened here--- someone replaced the heads and waterpump with 302 stuff as you posted, or they replaced the 289 with a 302, using a mix of parts from both. (which is what I'd suspect) Easiest thing to do is replace the waterpump with a 289 pump, thereby uncovering the timing pointer, allowing you to use the correct balancer marks to time it. If you do, don't use the 6* figure, advance it to 12* BTDC, it'll run a whole lot better at 12*

 

[SoCalCruising]

My advice is to use the marker that is there and re-mark your balancer. You want to find TDC, compression stroke, which isn't too hard, and then use a timing tape (Mr. Gasket has them) to correctly mark the balancer.

To find TDC, remove cap from distributor, turn engine until the rotor points pretty close to #1 sparkplug position on dizzy. Remove the spark plug on #1 cylinder. Use a small screwdriver (or similar) to gently stick into the combustion chamber. You will feel (with screwdriver) that the piston is near top of its stroke. Use a socket wrench to turn the damper bolt one way, then the other, etc. until you are confident that the piston is at TDC. You can feel that pretty closely. Place the TDC mark on the tape on the balancer so that it aligns with your existing pointer. Voila! Just be sure to clean the balancer surface carefully so that the tape will adhere.