Those darn timing marks, where exactly do they go
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MNspiderman
Those darn timing marks, where exactly do they go
Ok, I fully rebuilt my engine on my 1977 fiat spider with the 1800 engine / 5 spd. I have the cams holes lined up on the aluminum marks on the head behind the cam wheels, and the metal pointer on the face side as well which is the same thing. I set the aux pully at 34 degrees to the right of square. I read two books which obviously say the same thing, that the crank timing notch on the big pully has to line up with the long timing mark on my "yellow" cover Well beat me with the ugly stick because for some reason I can only get the crank pully mark to line up with the center mark of the three marks on my yellow timing cover. If I try to move it a notch, It goes past the big line (TDC). at least a quarter inch. I've done this time after time, making sure the belt had tension on the corrrect side and all that jive. So its either before or after the TDC long line mark. Why is this, any thoughts, my car wont start, its backfiring up the carb. The distributor is still dual points and worked great before the rebuild, so I didn't touch it yet. Its set properly too. Please help.
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So Cal Mark
Re: Those darn timing marks, where exactly do they go
with all of your timing marks lined up, make sure the rotor in the dist is pointing to #4, not #1
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MNspiderman
Re: Those darn timing marks, where exactly do they go
Your exactly right Mark. All my V-8 life its been #1. I totally forgot about #4 and I knew it. By the way it runs awesome. Just waiting for the paint and misc had oils to burn off the engine. Haven't smelt that for many years. Last night I was thinking and thinking and telling myself why is fuel burping up the carbs and catching fire. Usually an obvious 180 degree off. I knew why but totally forgot about the #4 thing because I was so into figuring out the problem. So the answer to my own question about all those timing marks do line up except the crank pully notch. It favors the center mark on the timing cover and not the true tdc mark (long line) as the books show. And this is just my opinion, not a fact.
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So Cal Mark
Re: Those darn timing marks, where exactly do they go
the marks not lining up is a fact of life with a belt that requires some play, and changes in dimensions as machining is done. If you watch the cam marks with a timing light while the engine is running, you'll see that the flex in the belt causes constant variations in timing anyway. Some of the problems can be mitigated with adjustable cam pulleys