Long story short version,,,,,I hope,,,,,in 30yr career in Law Enforcement I was a detective for 5 1/2 years. While in burglary I had a chance to help an old machinist recover his son's 327 small block which was stolen by a known bad guy,,,,put out an APB on the guy and I got a call within a week from a nearby PD that they had him in custody from a pursuit of an early model chevy truck. I had the officer confirm that there was a new small block in it, had it impounded/returned the engine to the machinist and he was thrilled at the quick turn around and told me that he specialized in building race engines in the valley, (his nick name was Papa Don). He told me that if I ever had a need for an engine rebuild to look him up. I was working with my son on a 71 Chevelle Malibu with a 350 in it making it a resto rod for him,,,,,we had him do it for us,,,,I subsequently used him for a 67 Ford Mustang resto rod I made for my daughter, (both the kids vehicles made it into their respective high school year books as the hottest cars of the year in their senior year) just bragging on my kids rides. Now for my truck I need help on,,,,,I inherited my dad's 72 Ford F250 Sport Custom Camper Special after his passing in 83. It came with a 360 out of the factory and my dad wanted a big block after he had it for a few years. My dad was a postman and had a friend in the church get him a big block FE motor out of junk yard and rebuild it and put it in the truck for him. Many years after I got the truck there was an engine fire while my kid was driving it. I took the engine over to Papa Don and he started the rebuild for me. I received a rather excited call from him days later and I remember him saying "you know what you have here?" I said no just a big block FE,,,,,he then told me that I had a 428 cobra jet from the mid 60's I believe he said,,,,,now this was so many years ago,,,,,the last 12 years I was a sergeant then I retired in 2009. It has been 15plus years since I retired and I recently suffered a woodruff key shear off on the vibration dampner. I found that the keyway was a 1/4" keyway but one of his boys who did his assemblies did a very stupid thing,,,,,he put a 3/16" key in it and then put some of that metal infused epoxy in it without the old man's knowledge, I know that because Don would of never let it leave his shop that way. To make a long story short, due to my cop's retirement and social security I am not flush enough to pull the engine and repair it the right way,,,,,the end of the crank and the keyway got burgered up pretty good so I cleaned it up and restored it as good as I could and had a custom 1/4" straight woodruff key made so that I could get the best bite I could in the keyway on the crank and was forced to use the same crap to glue everything together putting a new spacer and dampner on it. I am just about ready to put the new 9mm wires on the new plugs,,,,,I have an MSD system on it, and I am trying to match up some hoses to the 4 core aluminum radiator that I had put in it so many years ago,,,,,I am going to be firing it up later today and I need to know what the timing should be on this engine,,,,,Papa Don went to town when he asked me on that phone call what I wanted him to do with it,,,,,I said doll it up brother,,,,,,well he put a slight cam,,,,not a rumpty rump 3/4 cam but it has of course not idled smoothly since I installed it so many years ago,,,,,I think it was in the mid 90's,,,,,he also put what he called flat racing pistons in it with 10 to 1 compression,,,,,and had his son spend an exorbitant amount of time grinding out the intake and exhaust ports on the cast iron heads,,,,,,Now I know they are not 428 CJ heads,,,,,they are not 16 bolt heads so they are just crudely smoothed out FE heads done by a dremel tool. I am trusting an old machinist who has passed long ago that he knew his stuff regarding the block being a 428,,,,,so that is all I know (I am a shade tree mechanic who has done 8 or so restorations counting the ones I did in high school and so I do not know how to look up the timing for this engine under these conditions,,,,,,need help,,,,,don't want to do the old distributor twist from retarding to rough running and put it in the middle ,,,,,,that is just a neanderthal thing to do to this special engine. So if any of you can help this old cop out I would greatly appreciate it,,,,,,,God Bless

 

It's hard to give a good answer to this on a custom engine like yours. The lopey cam and flat-top pistons change that, and there's not really a book of ignition timing without knowing a lot more about the parts.

If it were me, I'd start at 8 degrees, get it to fire and run, then experiment over the next few drives, slightly advancing 1 degree at a time (and record each time) until you hear a little detonation at WOT, then back down about 2 degrees, but . . .

. . . this is the "New Member Introductions" forum, and the folks that know about this sort of thing don't often visit here. You might want to ask the same question over in the "1967 - 1972 F-100 & Larger F-Series Trucks" forum to get some (probably-better) answers going. They can also help you get on the right track identifying the engine.

Welcome aboard!

 

If the Cranks Keyway and Stuff are funk, replace them is your best option.
Of course you want a timing light, the timing at the pulley should not move all over the place as you try to time it at idle.
If it does the Cam and Crank / Distributor parts are loose in the working parts of that stuff. Most likely those gears are also damaged.