Top dead center help!!

[SPEEDYLIFSAVR]

I'm doing my HCI this weekend and started tearing the motor down today . I think I may have screwed up putting the motor at TDC . I pulled the #1 plug and turned the motor by hand until I felt air blowing out the plug hole , I marked the distribultor and pulled it out . I forgot to look at the balancer and mark it .

I assume I was pretty damn close to TDC when I pulled the distributor , after pulling the heads and timing cover the piston was about 3/4 of the way up the bore a short distance from the top and the marks on the gears were close to being lined up . I turned the motor just enough to have the cam gear at 6 and the crank gear at 12 . so since I was close to TDC before I should be there now right??

The marks are lined up on the gears and the #1 piston is at the top of the bore . As long as I stab the distributor with the rotor lined up at #1 (I left the plug wires attached) I should be good right??????

 

[dragnazz5.0]

yep.....stop worrying you should be good to go

 

[billison]

If it was easy it would'nt be fun

 

[Roland69]

#1 cyl on compression stroke....move crank pully to 0* and then you are TDC

 

[jrichker]

Putting the distributor back in is fairly simple. Pull #1 sparkplug, put your finger in the sparkplug hole, crank the engine until you feel compression. Then line up the TDC mark on the balancer with the pointer on the engine block.

The distributor starts out with the #1 plug wire lined up at about 12:00 with you facing it. Align the rotor to about 11:00, since it will turn clockwise as it slides into place.

Align the distributor rotor up with the #1 position marked on the cap, slide the distributor down into the block, (you may have to wiggle the rotor slightly to get the gear to engage) and then note where the rotor is pointing. If it still lines up with #1 position on the cap, install the clamp and bolt. If not, pull it out and turn 1 tooth forwards or backwards and try again. Put the #1 spark plug back in and tighten it down, put the clamp on the distributor, but don't tighten it too much, as you will have to move the distributor to set the timing. Note that if it doesn't align perfectly with #1 position, you can turn the distributor until it does. The only problem is that if you are too far one way or the other, you can't turn the distributor enough to get the 10-14 degree optimum timing range.

At this point hook up all the wires, get out the timing light and start the engine. Set the timing where your car runs best. Don't forget to disconnect the SPOUT jumper connector when you set the timing, and plug it back in when you finish.