The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop 235 timing mark

i put a hei dist. in my 46 this weekend the engine.it is a 52 235
i pulled the valve cover and plugs bumped the engine over until the intake valve closed, turned the motor with the fan looking through the spark plug hole until at tdc. the rotor was pointing at number one. i put in the hei and it fired up. now comes the weird part
i could not find the timing mark with the light so i stoped put number one back on tdc of the compression stroke crawled under pulled the dust cover and the steel ball on the fly wheel is 180
from the pointer. why?

Is this a trick question?
The steel ball is not 180 out, your distributor is.
Each cylinder hits TDC twice for one revolution of the crank.
The distributor turns at half the speed of the crankshaft.
If the steel ball is 180 out from the pointer you are in the number 6 cylinder firing position.

If its a concern either pull and rotate the dizzy 180 degrees or swap the plug wires at the cap by rotating them out 3 plug positions over.

Jeff

philipdltx18,

I'm confused. The flywheel is keyed to the crank. If you had #1 at TDC and the pointer on the ball...and the truck started and ran, then all is as it should be.

As Jim Meier noted, things can be 180&deg out, BUT, the truck wouldn't start! You said it started, so it isn't 180&deg out!

Why isn't the ball where it's suppose to be..I don't know. Some important fact has been overlooked. When you put a light on #1 plug wire, the ball must light up, that's the only way this engine operates.

Stuart

i hear what you are saying jim but the piston only comes to tdc
on the compression stroke once. i rotated the engine until the intake valve closed then brought the piston up to tdc on 1 put in the dizzy the engine will run as it should but the ball on the flywheel is off

I think there are several options here. You are looking at the incorrect mark on the flywheel, someone has altered the position of the flywheel on the crank (highly unlikely) or you are not clear on what you are seeing or the procedure you are using.

Keep us posted on this brain teaser!

Stuart

Philipdltx18,
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I gave out some bum information.
Earlier in the afternoon I had a root canal and thought the pain killers had wore off. I guess they hadn't.
The pistons hit TDC twice for every revolution of the distributor. The crank will have rotated twice for every rotation of the distributor.
This means that when the steel ball lines up with the pointer it is either on or 180 out. You are static timing it right by watching when the intake valve closes.
I had a similar problem when I put my 235 back together. What I finally ended up doing was watching when the intake valve closed,
then continued to rotate the engine until the ball lined up with the pointer. Then I set the distributor to fire on number 1 cylinder.
Then I followed up by using a timing light when the engine was running to rock in the timing adjustment.

Is it possible that some 235 clutch housings (car, maybe) had the timing hole on the carburetor/steering side of the engine (the flywheel would then be marked differently)? My question is probably ridiculous?

Tim,

I had a '54 Chevy car with a 235 and its peep hole for timing was on the conventional side...above the starter.

The ball is ALWAYS on the pointer when #1 is TDC. It might be TDC on exhaust or it might be TDC on compression, but the ball will always be on the pointer.

This wouldn't apply is someone mechanically altered the location of the flywheel to the crank, but there would be no reason to do this that I can think of...unless someone wanted to use a fresh section of ring gear and went through the trouble of drilling some new holes in the flywheel. I guess stranger things have happened huh!

Stuart

Dumb question, are you turning the engine over in the correct direction while watching the intake valve close?
Scott

This is all great stuff but now I have a headache. First forget watching the valve, pull all the plugs, slowly rotate the engine until it blows your thumb out of #1 spark plug hole. Look in the spark plug hole and get the piston at TDC. Then you should see if the flywheel ball is visible in the hole above the starter, if not as stated, the flywheel has been put on wrong. No matter, adjust the dist. rotor to #1 wire, then fine tune the thing. If all this fails then you need to get a manual.

i think we have a winner boys the hole on my bell housing is on the
carb side is this wrong it sure makes timing a 2 man job

The timing peep hole has a embedded sharp pointer in the bellhousing casting. Does the hole on the carburetor side have this little pointer.

The obvious setup would be with the distributor and timing hole both on the same side...in the same vicinity, and this would be how it came from Detroit.

I believe there is a hole on the side you mention, but it isn't the timing hole, normally.

Stuart

yes wrong, yer looking at the wrong hole, the timing hole is on the starter side, look where the X is

Bill

philipdltx18,

Do not feel bad about looking on the wrong side. I asked my question above because I recall that someone posted the same "problem" a while ago.

Tim

philipdltx18,

The timing hole above the starter came with a rubber plug stuck in it. If that plug has survived all these years, the hole wouldn't be obvious unless you knew it was there. Throw a bunch of gunk on top of it and it would really disappear.

Stuart

http://www.chevsofthe40s.com/search...ar&searchbtn.x=27&searchbtn.y=13

If you cannot get timing fixed,,,time engine with a vacum gauge...doc

thanks for all of the help guys the problem is solved. oh yea there is a hole on the starter side it was caked over with grease and dirt i am new to these engines i read that the timing mark is on the fly wheel and is set through a hole in the bell housing so i thought that the hole on the left was it. what the hell is that hole on the carb side for? i must admit it had me stumped because i know exactly how to drop a dizzy in an engine and thats why it cranked and ran.
the bad news is a cracked head that i found while the valve cover was off the good news is that i have a 58 full pressure on the engine stand i will put my hei in it soon.