Sunday, June 12, 2011

Finding Top dead center on GM V8


1. First you must locate the number one cylinder. (This will be the drivers side plug, closest to the front of the engine.)

2. Remove the coil and distributor cap and have an assistant rotate the engine by using the starter. (observe the location and rotation of the rotor and the engine pulleys)

3. Now remove the furthest front spark plug on the drivers side of the car and lower a long screw driver into the hole.

4. Using a six point socket and a rachet. rotated the engine slowly in the direction the pulleys were spinning durring starter function. ( This will be an easier task with all of the spark plugs removed from the head )

5. Carefully watch the screwdriver for change in elevation with the rotation of the engine.

6. Observe the line marked on the harmonic balancer pulley. As this line approaches the teeth on the timing stand off, So will the piston be reaching the Top Dead Center (TDC) location, and so will the rotor be pointing nearest the #1 plug wire post.

7.Finally, the screw driver will reach its furthest "TOP" point, and under the valve cover, the two rockers to that cylinder will be loose (if you want to expose that)

8. Looking at the rotor and which post it is pointing at,eill expose the Number one position.

9. Back the timing line off the TDC mark by about six degrees , or three marks and twist the distributor itself into the position that lines the rotor up with a post towards the center of its twistable range.

10. Install the distributor cap and place number one wire on the post directly over the rotor tip. THAT IS WIRE ONE LOCATION

11. Following the direction of the rotor rotation, install  wire eight, then four, three, six, five, seven , and two

<strong>Other usable tid=bits</strong>
In some cases, the cylinder number might be cast on the intake port right above the cylinder.

The distributor rotation may also be indicated, by having an arrow cast onto the intake manifold, near the distributor

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