Hey folks, need your help please. I pulled out my old tired 302 and dropped in a 351W that I had built for me. Anyhoo, I crawled underneath and marked the timing mark with chalk but I'll be danged if I can find where I need to aim my timing light!!!! Sounds silly I know...but I've got an alternator right in the way and belts and crap!!!! Is it like a Lotus where I have to take the right front wheel off????? lol...any help would be appreciated...can't do this thing by ear....Thanks all!!!! P.S., I don't even see a hole or anything to aim my light at.

 

There should be a tang or pointer to align your chalk mark with at about the eleven o' clock position of the harmonic balancer.

 

Hi,

there is an special Tape available. On that tape you can find the BTDC, the ATDC and some degree marks between.
Just pull your ballancer, install that tape on it and reinstall the ballancer.
Than you'll be able to find any timing mark much easier with your timing light and If there is not enough space for the t-light you'll be able to do it exactly by hand

The tape should be available in good sorted perfomance stores. If I remember right it's by Mr Gasket, but I'm not sure....

just an idea...

good luck

Jens

 

Ok...11 o'clock huh...well, I have a thingamajig that has a hole in it that you can look through. The only way to look through it though is if you crouch real deep into the engine compartment. Then the only thing you'd be able to see spinning is a 3 or 4 point disc that's located behind the harmonic balancer....I've taken some pics of this and if I can figure out how to post them so you can view, I think it might help. Any Ideas on how to post these pics??

 

Go to "galleries" on the upper right side of the screen if you want to put them on this site. If you have your own site, get the address of the picture and paste it in your message. On the front of the pasted url put [ i m g ] with no spaces and then [ / i m g ] on the end of the url with no spaces (I put spaces in my example so it would not trigger the imaging). This will trigger the message board to go get the picture and put it in your message.

By the way, I know what you are talking about as far as finding the mark. It's not easy to see through all the junk on the front of the engine, but it's there. Make sure you are hooked up to the front passenger side plug wire.

 

Yes that's the sight hole.

Look through there to verify the mark is on it... for timing

 

Doc, the disc with the four lobes on it behind the harmonic balancer triggers the crankshaft position sensor. It's called the pulse ring. If you have that, then the "thingamajig" you are talking about is the mounting bracket for the magnetic sensor or crankshaft postion sensor (CPS.) The lobes on the pulse ring interupt the magnetic field at the tip of the CPS and generate an output signal to the ECA (Electronic Control Assembly.) The ECA uses the signals to determine the exact postion of the crankshaft and controls the timing and advance of the ingition. This system was used on Ford vehicles with Dura Spark III/EEC III ignition.

It would help a lot and possibly save you a lot of trouble and frustration if you would post the year of your truck and type of ignition system if you know it. (The color of the grommet on the ignition module will tell a great deal.)

Also, are you using all the ignition components from the original engine, or are you using anything that came on the 351?

Depending on your type of ignition system, you may not need to worry about CPS. If you have Dura Spark II, you can just time it providing you find the alignment marks and forget about it. If you have Dura Spark III you'll need to have the CPS installed. FWIW, you cannot adjust the timing on the DS III ignition. That's a function of the ECA.

Bottom line, you can't mix DS II and DS III ignition components. You're going to have to determine what ignition system your truck came with and stick with that.

Scott

On Edit: Oh, well I see your engine is running so you must have Dura Spark II ignition. If you had DS III, it wouldn't run without the CPS. The 351 must have just come out of a truck with DS III. Now if we can just help you find the timing mark's you'll be all set!

 

My Doc

My 351W engine is out of a 1982 truck and my thingamajig has the hole thing and also a pointer.

It's visable just above the alterator support arm.

I posted a photo for you in my gallery

The pointer should align with the timing marks on the damper. Look at the damper very closley and you will see a "0" mark along with some others (10 - 20 degrees I think) and hasm marks for each degree.

Jerry T

 

My Doc

Another note. There is a very deep mark in the damper. This is not the timing mark.

I think the deep mark is about 180 degrees from the fine timing marks

Jerry T

 

Horsepuller,
Thanks for clearing that up...the truck is an 82 originally came with a 302 in it. I replaced the electonic box on the fender well a year or so ago and if memory serves me, it was a Duraspark II, I had to replace the timing chain on her and I'd remember that contraption behind the dampner if it had one. So that leaves me with a useless hunk of metal behind my dampner...no wonder there aren't any timing arrows bolted to the cover...duh.....so where do I go from here? Thanks for all your help.

 

Jerry, looked at her again...I don't have the pointer that you show in your pic. And I never did ask the guy I got the engine from exactly what year it was....I know...go ahead and slap the crap out of me...lol...I want to say 84 or newer...not sure when the big wigs at Ford decided to go to Dura. III. Thanks for the info and pic.....great looking rig by the way.

 

I believe that Duraspark III was 1st put on in 1982.

You can always try the RPM method of setting timing.
(1) Rev the engine up to 2500 or higher (to make sure that all of the mechanical advance is in). Use the idle screw adjustment to keep it steady. Don't forget to unhook the vacuum advance if you have one.
(2) Advance the distributor until the engine misfires and then back off the timing 50 to 100 RPM.

This would be your maximum advance.

If you have any hard starting or pinging then back off another 50 to 100 RPM.

The other method would be to fabricate a pointer and set it on the 0 mark when the piston is at TDC. It's easiest to do this with the head off, but you can do it with the head on by threading a piston stop into the spark plug hole in #1. Rotate the engine one direction until you contact the stop and set the pointer on 0. Then rotate the engine the opposite direction until you contact the stop again. Then move the pointer 1/2 the amount it's off the 0 mark. This would be very close to TDC.