Ok well I think some thing is up with my timing on my 79 I put on my timing mark and hooked up my light and according to my light my timing mark is no where to be found.When I installed the new HEI I was very careful to keep every thing lined up. I wonder if when the previous owner rebuilt the engine they installed a cam thar changed the fire order but I thought it only changed the 5,7 cylinders? I clipped the timing light to all the plug wires and could not get the mark to line up with the pointer on the block.... My timing mark is staying around the 5 to 7 o clock area if your looking at the truck head on.. Any ideas what this might be? should I try to set the timing back the hard way by getting the No1 cylinder at TDC and then reinstall my distributor pointing to it? I forgot to mention but the truck is running just really bad.

 

Well, I doubt your cam has a different firing order, Nomad. Ford used only the one firing order for its 30-year run. And as much as I hate to say it, I think your last idea was your best. Find TDC (make SURE it's TDC...as ashamed as we are to admit it, I'm betting there's more than one of us around here that has stabbed in a distributor 180º out), then drop in your distributor with the rotor pointing to #1 on the cap. A little trick I use is to find TDC, then line the harmonic balancer mark for the timing you want (I've always used 14º and never had any spark knock, even with 10:1 pistons...but you might wanna try 10º to be conservative) with the pointer on the block. Then drop the distributor in and line it up with #1 on the cap.

If you're sure you've found TDC, but the marks on the balancer aren't even close to lining up, then it could be that the outer ring on the balancer has slipped. I've never seen one that's slipped almost 180º, but I haven't seen it all...yet!

Good luck...
Pat

 

Aweosme thanks, I ordered a top dead center whistle from eastwood.
So my understand once you hear the whistle you back it back about half a turn and that should roughly be TDC...?

 

I can't remember the years and applications but there is two different ways the dampeners could be marked and two different places the timing point would be mounted to accommodate it. Simple solution would be to do a piston stop method to find TDC then buy some timing tape from summit or jegs and mount on your dampener for all future use. it cost less then $4 from summit
Summit SUM-164595 - Summit Timing Tape - summitracing.com

Pat did mention another possible issue and that is a slipping dampener, I would take some paint and mark the inner hub and the outer ring and watch to see if it moves at all. If you see any movement indicating the outer ring is moving your dampener is bad and needs replaced.

 

Thank you Monster very much for your help