timing marks

[masta-g]

hello all,
I have a 78 f-150 and recently changed out the motor blew the other one .i went to a newer motor from a salvage yard but now i have no power climbing the hills .what is the correct timing and there are marks in 3 different places on the front cover.my old mother would climb the 8% grade into town at 60 + this one will barely maintain 45 any suggestions??
masta-g

[OldMetal]

Knowing what year and size engine would help

[masta-g]

it is a 1978 f-150 w/300-6 I pull a trailer some of the time and need to have at least as much hp as I had befor the engien swap
thanks for the reply
masta-g

[Ford_Six]

WHat year engine did you put in? They dropped the compression quite a bit on the later engines before EFI, and also had retarded cam timing.
You should start at about 8ºBTDC on the timing pointer (not cast timing cover marks) at about 650rpm.

[OldMetal]

For my 77 300 the timing is 10 degrees.

[thunderb]

My timing marks on on the passenger side of the timing cover. You will see the toothed timing indicator on the cover over the balancer. There are also several lines on the balancer, use the thin scribe line. Clean and mark the timing marks before setting timing to make everything easier to see. i put a small mark on the 8 deg point as a reference. I run the stock 8 deg timing in my manual tranny truck. Any more and it likes to ping under load.

[masta-g]

is there a place i can go online to decode the casting marks on the block to get compression ratio and what cam is in there

[flipklos]

8.0 or 8.8 depending on year