top dead center?

[WayFast84]

Im currently unbolting things for my cam swap, and I was just wondering what I have to do to get it to top dead center? so when I get my new dizzy i will be good.

thanks

matt

[WayFast84]

Never mind I got it!!

[BonzoHansen]

Glad to hear it. It is not electrical, BTW. And I hope you are not 180* out.

[WayFast84]

180 out?

[BonzoHansen]

The piston comes to the top twice. You have a 4 stroke engine.

Piston up, timing pointer at 0*, valves closed.

[WayFast84]

well its at 0 now that means I gotta turn it to 0 again?

[BonzoHansen]

Valve position?

[deadtrend1]

pull the drivers side valve cover off. Look at the two front rocker arms when your spinning the motor. That will be the number 1 cylinder.
When the second from the left rocker arm "pushes down" thats when it sucks in air and fuel. Thats your intake stroke.

As soon as that rocker arm lifts back up, look at your balancer for the grooved line to hit the 0 mark on your timing pointer attached to your timing chain cover. Thats Top Dead Center.

That is the point where that cylinder will send spark to your plug (given the fact your distributor wires are correct and your timing chain is installed properly).

[WayFast84]

ohh noes!!! my distributers out and i dont think its on top dead center ;(

[project89]

dont worry just zero up the mark on the balancer,when u install the new cam just make sure u line up the marks right,then get the intake back on,and u can find #1 on the dizzy

[WayFast84]

it is 0 with the line

[project89]

yes line up the line on the balancer with the 0 on the timming tab on the timming chain cover

[V]

u still gotta make sure its TDC on the compression stroke, otherwise you still run the chance of the dizzy being 180 out.

matt, honestly, many people use slightly different methods and thatll confuse you. you can use a tool, your finger, a compression gauge, pull the heads, etc. Easiest is to pull the #1 spark plug, put your finger over the hole and turn or have someone turn the crank towards TDC 0* mark. On the compression stroke, you will feel air pushing out of the sparkplug hole, that there is TDC compressionwith your finger, if you feel nothing, keep turning the crnak a full revolution and check again, when you get it and feel it, youll see what i mean. Now once thats now at 0* LEAVE IT, lol. when you put the distributor back in, you'll want to try to get the rotor to point towards the general area of the back drivers corner of the carb. Mark exactly where it points once it slips all the way in. When you put the cap on and the wires, wherever the mark is where the rotor points, thats the terminal you'll want to connect the #1 wire, then attach the rest of the plug wires going clockwise as per the firing order.

also with the cam, TDC doesnt matter when installing it, only matter when putting the dizzy back in. when putting the cam in, there are the 2 timing chain gears, on those gears there are 2 dots. the bottom dot(crank gear) will be at 12 0'clock position and the cam gear dot will be at 6 o'clock position. Once those are lined up, reinstall the cover etc, and then manifold. at that point you can then worry about finding TDC like i explained above.

[project89]

smokingss he is swaping the cam it dosent matter what stroke it is on when he takes it apart.alls he has to do is line up the new marks on the timming chain when he puts it back together and it will be right
edit he already has the dizzy out and he didnt mark it so hes gonna have to find #1 anyway,which is done easily enough once th emotor goes back together

[V]

i didnt say it matters when he takes it apart,
i know the dizzy is out, if you read it i said when you put it back IN.
also i gave the simple way of finding TDC for anyone, regardless of a cam swap or not.

[project89]

yeah i was dead tierd when i read the post so i didnt see it,noticed it after i posted and was to lazy to edit my post