TDC with upper Intake removed..

[Bizz]

I am swapping the upper/lower on my 91.
I have all the connectors removed, upper and tb removed and injectors/fuel lines unplugged.
I forgot set TDC before I started taking everything off.. So I never did the "finger in the hole" blow trick to set the car at tdc..
So my question is...
Can I do the finger blow thing by turning the crank by hand??
I have not read any post about setting tdc without being able to "crank" the ignition..
Please help

 

[ss93cobra]

I don't think so. Just put the dist. back in, don't plug it in, and crank it.

 

[rd]

Yes, as long as the crank and cam are timed, and the valves adjusted, it will have compression at the right place with the intake and dist out. This is how you figure out where to put the dist back in.

As you have the engine valley exposed, you can also verify the postion of the no 1 cyl lifters etc, to ensure you are at tdc.

 

[Bizz]

do you think it would be better to hook everything back up loosely.. ie battery, maf, injectors, upper, tb exc and crank the ignition with the key?
The lower is still fully in, just the connectors undone and electricals..
I have not yet pulled the distributor or ropped the coolant.
What would you do?

 

[Bizz]

Sorry for the typo,
collant has not been drained yet...

 

[tunedin302]

do you think it would be better to hook everything back up loosely.. ie battery, maf, injectors, upper, tb exc and crank the ignition with the key?
The lower is still fully in, just the connectors undone and electricals..
I have not yet pulled the distributor or ropped the coolant.
What would you do?

If you haven't pulled the dist then just crank the motor by hand until the rotor lines up with the #1 plug wire and there you will have TDC. Just watch the mark on the damper and verify by watching the pushrods.

 

[Bizz]

If you haven't pulled the dist then just crank the motor by hand until the rotor lines up with the #1 plug wire and there you will have TDC. Just watch the mark on the damper and verify by watching the pushrods.

great..
thanks

 

[srothfuss]

How are you going to know where the distributor is when you restab it? Did you mark the rotor position when you removed it?

The easiest way to do this would be to remove all of the spark plugs and crank the motor by hand until you feel compression on cylinder #1. It'll take like 2 minutes. Then when it's time to re-stab the distributor, you know where to point the rotor.

 

[legalize420]

easiest way, turn the crank bolt until the balancer is on zero, then stab it.

 

[tunedin302]

How are you going to know where the distributor is when you restab it? Did you mark the rotor position when you removed it?

From his above post, he didn't remove the dist yet, just the upper intake. Therefore, he can simply line up the rotor and pull the dist out since it is still in time with the motor.

 

[Bizz]

From his above post, he didn't remove the dist yet, just the upper intake. Therefore, he can simply line up the rotor and pull the dist out since it is still in time with the motor.

That is correct.
Distributor has not been touched yet..
I am going with the line up with the #1 method...

 

[timewarped1972]

if you guys are talking about just removing the dizzy for doing a manifold swap, then putting it back in......i always do the following...
take the cap off, put a breaker bar with a crank shaft socket on the crank and rotate the engine untill the rotor is pointing exactly stright back toward the fire wall......you can also do really small cranks with the starter except its tricky...you'll notice the rotor can be turned to the side slightly, for the advance mechanism, just get it so it's pointing straigt back to the firewall then when you put it back in just put it in untill the rotor is again facing stragt back. i've done that a bazzillion times and it works just fine as long as the engine isn't turned over with it out........when re installing it dont forget you have to have the rotor off a tooth a little due to when it meshes in with the gears it turns some.....you really only need to do the whole tdc number one thing if you loose your place.....