1979 460

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May 5, 2001 | 11:00 PM

davefrommo

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1979 460

About a year ago I swapped the 302 for a 460 in my 79 F100. Around 6 mo's ago I put on a Edelbrock EPS 800 carb, and it worked great. 2 days ago I put installed a Edelbrock Performer RPM intake manifold. I'm not the best at this kind of stuff but I thought I'd be able to figure out how to do it. When I tried starting it, it just backfired out of the carb.
When I pulled the distributor I forgot to mark the rotor postition inside the housing. I marked the base down on the block instead. Someone turned the shaft on the distributor. I tried and I believe I've succeeded in finding TDC of cylinder #1. I turned the rotor toward the cyl. #1 post on the cap. I first tried starting it and it fired up... I had to advance it a lot to get it to sound good. When i put the timing light on it it showed somewhere around 30 degrees. I put it on on 12 degrees which is what i think is the right spec, and set the carb to get it to even out. It still backfires. And throughout this whole time, when you push the gas more than a 1/4 of the way when driving, it feels like you are pushing the brakes hard and you have the gas mashed.
Could the distributor gear be turned a litte to far one way or the other or what?

May 6, 2001 | 06:50 AM

jowilker

Fleet Owner

Joined: Jun 1999

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From: Creedmoor, North Carolina

1979 460

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 06-May-01 AT 07:52 AM (EST)[/font][p]There are guys here better to answer your question, but I think that your dist is one tooth out of sinc.

When you have everything right and place the cap on the dist the rotor should be directly under the plug wire.

Try moving it a notch and repport back. :-)

John
jowilker
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May 6, 2001 | 01:09 PM

Franklin2

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From: Virginia

1979 460

How did you find top dead center on #1 piston? I use the method of looking at the rocker arms. When neither is open you are right. Some people use their thumb over the sparkplug hole, but I've never tried this. Sounds like your method was a little off. Try to find TDC again.

May 6, 2001 | 02:37 PM

davefrommo

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1979 460

I used the thumb over the spark plug method and it is right on TDC, and pointing right at the #1 cyl. post on the cap. Timing is around 18 degrees. I dont know exactly what this motor should be, but i think its around 12. Also could it be the vac advance not plugged into the right port on the carb? I don't know what type of vac advance this distributor has.

May 7, 2001 | 12:23 AM

oz9609

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1979 460

To find exact tdc you need to use the thumb on # 1 cyl till it blows out. Then turn the motor till you line the timing mark to 0 on the crank. Then set the dist. in to point at #1 terminal on cap.

May 7, 2001 | 04:24 PM

rwjr

Tuned

Joined: Apr 2001

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From: Athens, AL

1979 460

here's how i did mine....first we all know that there are 2 tdc's for a full cycle: compression and exhaust tdc. you know yours is close, so it should be easy...initial timing should be 10 BTDC. align the 10BTDC mark on the harmonic balancer with the pointer, adjust the distributor as necessary to align the rotor with #1 plug...then pefectly align the armature inside the distributor....then as long as the plug wires go to the correct plugs you should be fine (after final timing)...oh yeah...the vac advance goes on the driver side port if your dist. only has single advance...

May 7, 2001 | 07:33 PM

davefrommo

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1979 460

Thanks for all the help... got it running. Does anyone know where i can find the exact timing spec for this motor? Its not on any tag under the hood or anywhere.