When you line the dots up on the timing gears AKA "dot to dot" you are on the exaust stroke of the #1 cylinder... The guy above told you right about turning the engine over one turn.. But you put the chain on when they are "dot to dot" When you turn the crank 1 time it turns the cam 1/2 of a turn, putting the engine on the comp. stroke of the #1 cylinder. Then both dots are in the 12 o'clock position. After you do this you drop in the dist. pointing somewhat to the #1 cylinder. make sure your #1 plug wire corresponds to this position. As said your timing can be fine tuned with rotating the dist. once in place. you advance the timing by turning counter clockwise, retard the timing by turning clockwise. hope this in some way helps.
Darin

 

Yeah that does help. I did not know that you had to turn it over one more time once the dots are lined up. That must be the issue. The cam is on the wrong stroke, but the distributor is dead on. I'll check it out.

But it still makes sense to me that a backwards cam, and a backwards distributor would cancel out and make the car run right. I tried the distributor in both ways, remember. Anyone want to verify this?

 

Update:

I lined up the dots on the gears, and the #1 cylinder is on the compression stroke.

Now, how do I go about fixing this? Would I have to turn the camshaft gear independantly of the crank to get it to sync up right once and for all?

 

if you put the dots on top of each other(dot to dot) (6 o'clock to 12 o'clock) put your chain on. Then rotate the crank one turn. the dots should both be at 12 o'clock. After that you are ready to drop your distributor in pointing somewhat toward #1 cylinder. Good luck...

 

When my dots are "dot to dot", I am on the COMPRESSION STROKE on the #1 cylinder, not the exhaust like you said I should be in the 2nd quote. I know this from watching the valves open and close on the #1 cylinder.

See how I am getting mixed up here? My car hates me

 

When you put the engine on compression strock all you did was to put #1 cyl. in the right possion. When you lined up the cam (dot to dot) the cam is set for exhast, this is why you have to turn one more time ( 6-12 o'clock)to put it back on compression strock.

 

What he said....

 

Holy Moly reading this made my brain hurt.

If it were me starting over would be the thing to do.

1) remove distributor and timing chain.
2) bring #1 piston to TDC
2) line up cam and crank dots to dots.
3) install chain
4) rotate crank one turn which if I remember correctly brings the #1 piston to TDC again but at the top of the compression stroke. Bottom line is before re installing the distributor you want it at TDC #1 cylinder on compression stroke.
5) re install distributor with the rotor pointing to the #1 cylinder position, and replace dist cap. Approx pointing should be good enough.
6) make sure all spark plug wires are in their correct locations on the cap.
7) it should now fire up, squirt a bit of gas into the carb/throttle body to make sure it is not starving for fuel. If it tries to fire up but won't go rotate the cap a bit each way cranking. Try and remember where it was when you had in the approx location for #1 in case that doesn't work.
8) once it is running then time it according to procedure.

The above steps have worked for me numerous times and usually the engine fires to life right away.

Note to keep face away from carb/throttle body as it may backfire and spit flames you don't want to take a break to lick wounds.

 

Had the same problems. Tried all the aforementioned fixes with no luck. Then I happened to look at the bottom of the distributor and down the hole to see where it went. Turns out the bottom is keyed and fits into a slot into what I think is an oil pump or something. Anyway, this is what prevents the distributor from lining up the way you would like. To remedy:
1. Pull out distributor
2. Insert long standard screwdriver to realign slot in oil shaft. Shaft alignment is same as what you desire for rotor. I simply got it aligned somewhat prior to #1 plug.
3. Advance flywheel to 8 BTDC (2nd notch to left of 0 BTDC)
4. Replace distributor, reassemble everything and start
5. If it still doesn't work, line up 8 BTDC on flywheel one more time
6. Pull out distributor again (you're on the exhaust stroke)
6. While distributor is removed, rotate flywheel one complete turn and set to 8 BTDC again
7. Reinstall distributor, reassemble and start. This is what finally worked for us, after oh..10 or 12 attempts until I noticed the slot in the oil shaft

By the way, I like Mich Ultra :-)

Eric (Jake's Dad)

 

Had the same problems. Tried all the aforementioned fixes with no luck. Then I happened to look at the bottom of the distributor and down the hole to see where it went. Turns out the bottom is keyed and fits into a slot into what I think is an oil pump or something. Anyway, this is what prevents the distributor from lining up the way you would like. To remedy:
1. Pull out distributor
2. Insert long standard screwdriver to realign slot in oil shaft. Shaft alignment is same as what you desire for rotor. I simply got it aligned somewhat prior to #1 plug.
3. Advance flywheel to 8 BTDC (2nd notch to left of 0 BTDC)
4. Replace distributor, reassemble everything and start
5. If it still doesn't work, line up 8 BTDC on flywheel one more time
6. Pull out distributor again (you're on the exhaust stroke)
6. While distributor is removed, rotate flywheel one complete turn and set to 8 BTDC again
7. Reinstall distributor, reassemble and start. This is what finally worked for us, after oh..10 or 12 attempts until I noticed the slot in the oil shaft

By the way, I like Mich Ultra :-)

Eric (Jake's Dad)

 

Yeah, I thought that too, but I am getting very good oil pressure so I don't think this is the issue, as the oil pump would not be operating I believe. I found out that a few wires on the distributor module are chewed up and the rotor has aquired a ton of soot on the top of it so I think the distributor is just on it's way out all together. Gonna pick up a new one at autozone next time I am home.

 

without a cam in a bottom end only has 1 postion TDC,
not TDC compression and TDC exhaust, line up the dots, that is the most important thing,
if they are lined up you can't go wrong,

second I read somebody siad a sbc can't be a tooth off, it can, depending where the oil pump shaft was when you pulled the distributor,
also with fuel injection it is important the distributor goes in correctly and you don't just make it up with timing or moving wire postion,
the ecm calculates TDC with the distributor,


when you drop it in if the dissy doesn't seat completely on the oil pump shaft, apply light pressure to the top of the distributor and bar the motor it will drop in eventually

make sure you are going the right way around the dissy with the firing order, I've seen people get the right order but go the wrong way

18436572

 

Thanks, yeah all this has been done already, but to no avail =/. Like I said, I'm gonna get a brand new one because the wires going to the module underneath the cap are all chewed up. If that doesnt fix it, then the new one goes back, lol.

Just to make sure, you would know if the shaft wasnt lining up with the oil pump right? Like the distributor would just not seat correctly whatsoever is what I would assume. Because I lined it up and stabbed it in and it is seating correctly. I also have 45psi-ish of oil when the car is actually running, so I'm pretty sure the two are lining up.

 

If it sitting down right and the oil pressure is good without any weird noises I would expect that it is lined up correctly.