I understand how to time the engine however the timing mark(only one there visible and looks like a keyway 1/8 square 3 sided hole) is on the bottom at #1TDC. There is no smaller scribe line anywhere on the damper. This balancer does not appear to have any rubber damper installed into it. Am I looking at the wrong thing and have to make my own or is this correct and possbly 180° out? A quick answer would be appreciated as its going to get dark soon and down to 10° tonight.
Thanks in advance for your help.

 

What year is the truck? There are timing marks on the timing cover that are useless on the EFI engines, which use a stamped tab on the passenger's side.

 

Sorry for the lacking information. 92 F150 4.9 EFI EEC-IV no vac advance just spout connector. All electrical sensors and such have been replaced with new.

 

I had the exact same problem that you have …
A friend of mine drill a hole in a spark-plug and screwed a big bolt in it to help me find the exact TDC (you can take anything with the spark-plug tread) … We put the “modified plug” in the #1 cylinder and turn the crankshaft until it touch the bolt on one side and made a mark in front of the 0’, turn the crankshaft the other way util it touch again made another mark in front of the 0’, so that the centre of those mark will be my good TDC, painted white the new centred mark and timed the engine as usual !
Hope it could help ! Good luck !

 

I found the thin rubber insert and it appears to be good. No movement detected. I have been over the damper several times and cleaned it so there is no rust or dirt. I still can not find a seperate mark, line, or other indication of any other timing mark. If the marks on the timing cover are useless, what do I use to time with. There are no marks on the engine itself. I have looked at other posts and they refer to another mark. There IS NO other mark. What can I do to get this engine even close to correct timing. All help is greatly appreciated.

 

On my 87 efi, there is a very faint small scribe on the damper - very hard to find. I had to get TDC first to find it. Also the timing marks are on the passenger side - nearly impossible to see because of all the stuff in the way - looks like a piece of jagged toothed stamped steel. Of course this is an 87 - they may not have put it on the 92?

 

The jagged toothed stamped piece sticking out from the timing cover is there. There is a large raised hole in the middle with teeth on either side. As it sits right now it appears to be 60° out. How should I go about getting it back to where it goes without removing the dizzy? Worried about throwing it further out since it wasn't and hasn't been moved at all. I have looked all over the damper... THERE IS NO OTHER MARK other than the notch, and that is at the bottom at #1 TDC

 

Got another set of eyes to look for this other mark. They found it and painted it so even I could see it. When engine is #1TDC this very small thin mark is at "zero" and the rotor points to #1 plug wire tower. This should mean 10° out?

 

the mark should line up with the deep notch (10 btdc) not the circle at the top

 

It lines up with the big circle .. That means I am out by 10° and need to retard the timing? Am I correct in this assumption?

Would 10° make the truck run like crap( popping, sputtering, no power, etc)

 

The notch is not the timing mark. There should be a scribe, but if it's like my '86, it wasn't there, I had to find TDC and make a new mark.

 

Yep, out by 10 degrees - I can never keep advanced and retarded striaght in my head, but it's one of 'em! (is that a dunce cap?)

YES!!!!!

On my motor, I also have marks on the drivers side and they are a whole lot easier to get a timing light and a line of sight on. I lined up TDC (0 degrees) with the right side and put a corrisponding mark on the damper at 0 degrees on the left side marks, then used the left side to time it by. Make sense?

 

Thanks very much for the information however I have discovered a new problem. The exhaust is leaking oil from the front of the exhaust where it bolts to the head. It was not doing this before and I dont know where its coming from or why. It does not appear to be coming from the head where its bolted to the block. All bolts were torqued to specs and new gaskets were installed. Any ideas?

 

Are you sure its not leaking down from the valve cover? I can't imagine how oil would be coming out the exhaust manifold without a noticeable exhaust leak and lots of blue smoke out the tail pipe.

 

These guys will disagree with me but I pulled my distributor (for ignition timing) and repalce some parts lost the tieminmg completely. Bought a timing light, put white paint on the marks (yes they are incrediably faint and need something) and set the timing using the light.

The I disconnected the light, crranked the motor and rotated the distributor until the motor ran better.