I'm in the final stages of an engine swap and needed to swap in my old distributor since the donor engine was a '93 with the remote TFI.

So I'm trying to set the engine to TDC by spinning it around by hand. I've got #1 spark plug out so that I can confirm it's at TDC.

There are two marks on the crank pulley - a notch and a scribed line. Which one should I be using, and what do I align it with? Neither seems to be lining up with the TDC mark on the timing cover, but it occurs to me as I'm typing this that maybe it shouldn't, and it should be aligning with that little round "window" over on the passenger side - yes, no, maybe?

 

Normally the notch on the balancer would line up with the TDC mark. If it's slipped that might explain the scribed mark.

Here's how we've always done it. Pull the valve cover so you can watch the valves, place your finger over the spark plug hole. Rotate the engine until it stops hissing around your finger AND The valves are both closed. That will be TDC on the compression stroke. That's where you want it, otherwise you'll be be 180 degrees out.

 

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post10469335

 

Thank you. That answered all of my confusions. I'm going to paste your post in here as well, as I'm sure others have or will have the same confusions one day...

Could be you're looking at the wrong timing mark.

The back of the damper has a notch in it which is not the timing mark.
The timing mark is a scribed mark that can be very hard to see.

Some people use sand paper on the damper to get the rust
off of it which makes it easier to find the timing mark. Once you find the
mark use white paint on it so it can easily be seen.

The first picture shows the mark.
The second picture shows the notch.

The third picture shows the notch and the scribed mark.
Looking from the back side of the damper, the scribed mark is about
7 1/4 inches in the ccw direction from the notch.

The timing numbers are on a saw tooth shaped piece of metal that bolts
to the timing cover and is on the passenger side of the timing cover.

The timing cover also has timing marks engraved in the timing cover
on the driver side. These timing marks are not used for a fuel injected engine.

The fourth picture shows the timing numbers on the sawtooth shaped
piece of metal.

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I got the engine running tonight, but I didn't want to back-track and pull the intake and cover, so I just guessed, figuring I had a 50% chance of getting it right. This probably wouldn't be a terrible strategy if you knew everything else was right with the engine, but I didn't. It turned out the "new" engine had a bad coil, but that was one of the last things I swapped out.

Suffice it to say, I am now very good at removing the distributor, rotating it 180 degrees, and re-installing. I presume there is no other way to verify that you're at TDC-Compression stroke short of looking at the valves?

 

Just to add a practical note to this pic. On the toothed timing mark the various values are scribed into the metal, but surface rust probably makes them difficult to read. Apparently the factory realized this at some point and decided to make the notch at 10' BTDC a little larger as a reference point. Most of you realize this wasn't an arbitrary choice - 10' BTDC is the factory setting (spout out), although many of us set it a little more aggressive - I've got mine at about 15.