87 f-150 302.

My distributor went out and I had to replace.

I think I have the timing off a little.

How do I time this beast?

The manual say "Do not adjust timing since the computer adjusts the timing based on need" Well that is great unless you replace the distributor.

P.S.
I know the distributor is stab right because once it warms up it idles great and run like a bat out of hell. The problem is getting it to idle when cold.
Do you think the timing is to retard or advance?


Thanks

 

The timing had never been changed on my 1987 F-150 4.9 straight six since it came from the factory, but I wanted to check it. The timing mark seemed 180 degrees off. I had to use a piston stop to find a short range before and after top dead center on the #1 piston, made two marks, then measured between the marks and put a new mark for top dead center. I found the timing was 10 degrees BTDC like the VECI label said. The thread by meck1 talks about this, there were some posts today.

 

Turn the truck off. Figure out where the timing pointer is. Should be on the passenger side of the timing chain cover, down below the alternator. On my truck the shape of the pointer made it a little ambiguous where the reference arrow was -- I had to use the TDC locating trick to figure out that the reference is near the extreme clockwise limit of the pointer.

Bump the engine around with a starting switch (or a screwdriver across the starter solenoid) until you can see the degree marks on the harmonic balancer.

Use some White-Out to make a white stripe at 10BTDC.

Start the engine and warm it up to the point that it idles OK. Turn it off and open the hood.

Loosen the distributor hold down bolt until you can turn the distributor, but not so loose that it moves by itself.

Locate the gray SPOUT jumper in the two-wire branch of the harness near the distributor. Remove the jumper and put it in your pocket.

Connect a timing light to the front spark plug on the passenger side. This is #1 cylinder on Fords. Make sure the leads aren't going to caught in the fan.

Start the engine. Using the timing light to visualize the marks, turn the distributor until the timing is where you want it.

Stop the engine. Tighten the distributor hold-down. Re-start the engine and recheck the timing, to make sure it didn't move when you tightened the hold down.

Stop the engine. Reinstall the SPOUT jumper. Restart the engine. Let it idle.
Verify that the timing is now advanced from 10BTDC to 20BTDC or more. This indicates that SPOUT is working.

Stop the engine, remove the timing light.

The computer may set a continuous memory code because you removed the SPOUT jumper to set the timing. You can clear the codes by starting a KOEO self test, and removing the self-test jumper just as the test starts to dump out the fault codes.