Engine Timing

I have a 1989 Mustang 5.0 LX, in 2002 the previous owner installed a 302 rebuilt by Marshall Engines in Nebraska. I've read horror story reviews about them.
My problem is the timing is advanced way to much. My brother hot tested engines at Ford Motor Cleveland for 40 plus years and he could only guess as to what
the problem is. When I attempted to run the engine with a close to normal timing it ran like crap. Just wondering if anyone can tell me if maybe the timing chain skipped
a tooth or it was a bad re-build. I'm not even sure if the engine is indeed for a Mustang because stock motor mounts were useless when I went to change a broken one.
 
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To be honest I don't know what the base timing is set at. That's something I'll address. It is an EFI. What I do know is the
first thing we noticed was the distributor was turned as far counter clockwise as it could go. I'm just curious as to what might
cause this.
 
someone setting the timing incorrectly or the distributor hold down being loose
Everything is tight and yes the timing is way advanced but the car runs great. If I retard the timing to where it should be the engine runs rough.
I'm just wondering how my engine is different from others, what may be causing the difference and if anyone has run into this before. I'm perfectly
fine driving the car the way it is.
 
Whenever someone says they have to advance timing to get it to run good, I'd bet all my money on the balancer being the problem. The way it spins if it slips it will show more advance than what it really is.
 
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From your description I think you need to start with verifying the timing and get that distributor in a better place.
On the main tech page here in the fox tech forums is the famous technical/how to thread, there you'll find helpful info, look for distributor install, also at the bottom of this thread are similar threads that may have good info. Of course I'm sure some of our self proclaimed experts will chime in with dubious advice,
I believe it discusses setting timing starting at top dead center and distributor orientation. If not let me know I can explain it
 
From your description I think you need to start with verifying the timing and get that distributor in a better place.
On the main tech page here in the fox tech forums is the famous technical/how to thread, there you'll find helpful info, look for distributor install, also at the bottom of this thread are similar threads that may have good info. Of course I'm sure some of our self proclaimed experts will chime in with dubious advice,
I believe it discusses setting timing starting at top dead center and distributor orientation. If not let me know I can explain it
I'll look at those threads today. I'm basically just curious about whats going on because the engine is running great the way it is, it's just not normal.
 
Ok start with finding top dead center, easy-peasy.
Pull all the plugs, you'll know why in a few, hold your finger over the #1 plug hole, bump the engine till you feel air pushing out, take a small long shaft screw driver or similar object, stick it into the plug hole and turn engine by the bolt on the harmonic balancer with a socket and bar in the same direction and you should feel the piston move up, it will stop and start down, go back and forth with the bar to get it as close to the top of the stroke as possible. The pointer should be at 0*. If not, is the balancer wasted or the pointer bent?
Pardon me if I post this like you know little to nothing about poking around an engine but this is how I would start this venture. And I'm a mechanical retard er, impaired.
 
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Here is a little more re TDC:
Pull the #1 spark plug, hell pull them all, you need to change them anyway and it makes it easier to turn the engine by hand. Find 0* on the balancer and mark it, while you are there mark 10* , 12* and 14* btdc too, hold your thumb over the #1 plug hole and crank the engine till you feel air push out, this is the piston coming up on tdc, stick a thin screw driver in the plug hole, crank the engine by hand feeling for the piston to move the screw driver, you can use the piston moving the screw driver to feel the piston move up than down, as it stops moving up that is tdc, your balancer should be at 0* and the rotor should point to the #1 spark plug wire tower on the distributor, oh, forgot to mention you need to mark the outside of the distributor where the #1 plug wire is.
While you are fooling around finding tdc/ rotor pointing to #1 plug wire, move the balancer back and forth noting how far you have to turn the balancer to make the rotor move,