i have never been good with setting timing- most of my attempts have been on 95 and newer cars, i have a 63' 327. i rebuilt the motor, and after 2 weeks worth of researching i thought i had figured out how to set it. now im back to thinking i dont know sh!t about it! i looked through the tech articles and used the search but everything i found was more along the lines of tuning the timing. i basically need to know from installing the dist. on how to set the timing. the timing cover has a welded on tab with timing marks; there is a 0, and 6 or 7 notches to advance and retard. are these marks each 1 degree? the harmonic balancer has a stripe on it (i think its for matching up with the marks on the tab on the timing cover?) i set the mark to 6-7 degrees advance; unless those marks are each 2 deg. which is what i originally thought- would make it 12deg advance (making sure that it was on the compression stroke) then i put the distributor in noting where the no. 1 plug was according to the base so that i could make sure that the rotor was pointing twards the no 1 plug. put the cap on - but it seemed that the vac advance was turned a lot more clockwise than when i removed it, making the no. 1 plug set off to the left instead of almost strait forward (where i remember it being when i removed it). according to where the no 1 plug is on the dist. that i marked i installed the wires in order. i dumped a little gas into the carb (i rebuilt the carb and replaced the fuel line so i knew it would take a while for the fuel bowls to fill) it fired immediately when i cranked it, but only for a split second. (just long enough to put a huge smile on my face) i cranked it a couple more times pouring a little gas each time till the fuel bowls were filled enough that i could see the power piston squirting into the carb when i pushed the throttle. but it just wouldn't start. it would sound like it wanted to- ever once in a while it would do that thing where it sounds like it is going to start and i could hear the exhaust tone and the rpm speeding up (like when you start a cold old truck), but it just wouldn't start for more than a second. for fear of burning up the starter i stopped and decided to go back to researching the timing. i felt the exhaust manifolds (ram horns) and the driver side was still very cold, the passenger side around the 6 and 8 cylinder was pretty cold, but the front around the 2 and 4 cylinder was warm- like it had been firing. i know the plugs and wires are good (brand new) im thinking that its the timing. help! whaaaa
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