Distributor

[Kim K Kaiser]

doing some prelim distributor application.  A guy coming in tomoro to help me put in engine, so doing some pre planing, fitting,  in the attached picture, is the rotor pointing at number 1 or shoukd i re install back a notch or so so that it falls more to the right.    My hb is lined up on 0, and looks like 1 cylinder is at tdc.     So for when i get ready to insrall, shoukd the pointer be a little more clockwise, like ppointingover the first spring more?

[Russ Austin]

I'd bump it back a notch.

[Tony and Ginny 429]

Kim 

Place you dist cap on the dist with the inspection plate at about  at 11:30 ( clock time ) standing on the driver side fender and lock it down for now 

Make your number one cylinder ignition wire —one to the left of the ignition wire that is plugged over   the left side of the inspection plate on the dist  and wire the cap clock wise

You now want your rotor to be —-pointing directly  to that number one plug terminal when your crank timing plate and HB are at zero degrees and you have the cap off 

The reason that location is —KEY ——-is  otherwise the vacuum advance will be hitting the physical engine —— and prevent you from being able to turn the dist to see and set your timing correctly once the engine is running on the second start up 

Stock timing is 5 degrees—- ADVANCED — ( which means very slightly  before the number one dist terminal ) so to start the car you will need to have the rotor ever so slightly before the number one plug which you will accomplish by someone starting the car for you and you turning the dist ever so slightly counter clockwise while cranking the engine to fire it 

If it fires and begins to run you want to get the RPMs up to 1000 ASAP and hold it there for about a half hour getting up to operating temp before you shut it down allowing the metal to metal parts to polish themselves to each other - the polishing of the metal parts  is the break in happening 

The high RPMs allow the metal to metal parts too polish there surfaces to each other so a very necessary to keep the RPMS that  high at this time ( be sure you have enough gas in the tank and prime the carb 

If the engine pops  into the intake manifold  and does not fire you were—- NOT  on the number one cylinder but we’re on the number 6 cylinder as both those cylinders come to top dead center at the same time but the number 6 cylinder —-will NOT be on the compression stroke but will be on the intake stroke when the plug fires causing the poping you are hearing 

 If poping Remove the dist and spin it 180 degrees and reinstall it and start the engine  

Have a dist wench handy as you want to tighten down the dist nut  the moment you get the engine to run going to 1000 RPMs  and holding that RPM as steady as is possible working the carbs linkage 

Keeping the engine running at a very high idle is Key 

You can set your timing correctly  the second time you start the engine—- but starting the engine  now and running it to seat the metal to metal parts ———-is the most important thing for you to do ———as that will determine the quality of the break in and the engines long term longevity and performance 

There is only one way —-to set a new set of points —in the dist at a start up like this and that is with a feeler gauge at 16 thousants ( .016 ) as the car has to be running to use a dwell meter later 

Put the  new points  on the high point of the dist cam and draw a  .016 feeler guage across the gap 

You should feel a slight  drag on the feeler guage when the gap is right and lock the points down—- if this applies here

If you can start the car on the old points that were in the dist before that would be good also 

Once all is set correctly with someone cranking the engine move the dist ever ever so slightly to fire the engine and keep it running 

After the first time the engine goes to operating temp you will want to retorque down the heads and everything else you can 

You may have hose leaks and other minor bugs to work thru that will show themselves after running the engine a bit 

Second start up set the points on a dwell meter and then set your timing and the engine should  come alive more 

You rings will not seat for a few thousand miles and you should be burning some oil until they do so keep an eye on the oil ( which you are very good at by now ) 

The rings in our engines are extremely hard metal that will take a bit longer than usual to seat 

I would not exceed 50 MPH for the first 10,000 miles and never do myself 

When  at 50 miles per hour remove your foot from the gas and reduce your  speed as that will lubricate the top of the engine 

Varying the engines speed is better than holding one speed at this time and not exceeding 50 MPH 

Only use a dist cap with brass terminals 

The caps with the white metal terminals will a some point in the future out of nowhere—-  leave you stranded —- as the car will refuse start out of nowhere after it was running fine 

Enjoy 

[Tony and Ginny 429]

Regarding setting a  new  set of points at .016 

Always recheck the setting after you lock the points down to  double check the setting as that gap is a major factor in the engine firing off 

I set the points on a dwell meter later at 30 (  SB between 28 and 32 ) at 480 RPMs ( as the RPM  number changes  the setting ) 

Enjoy 

[Kim K Kaiser]

Im running petronics so dntvuse points

Got it in!  By the. Hardest.  

Some items i found along the way.

The trans kickdown got bent , i guess during extraction.  Points more up than parrelel to body.  Dnt kno how it happened. But,  guessing i can bend dk downward and into a parrelel poistion to hook up to carb?

Second the pcv line runs up the valley pan, then curls bk toward front of carb.  I hv a picture of it, but it doesnt show if it attaches at front,  i cant seem to find an attachment point or does iy just sit under there open ended?

Got exhuat hooked bk up, radiator hoses tonight, intake, carb tomorow.  

[Tony and Ginny 429]

The pvc hose comes from under the intake over the front of the intake and with the PCV valve in that hose it gets attached to the black spacer under the carb of the stock Carter carb 

If an Edelbrock carb the same hose can  be connect to the front of that carb directly 

If using the stock black carb  spacer under the Edelbrock carb —-you now have TWO  places to attach that PVC hose —-so plug  —the one on the black carb spacer or you will have a major vacuum leak into the intake 

Nice seeing the photo with the new engine in the car 

Enjoy

Enjoy 

Use hose  clamps on all hoses going to the carb and vacuum lines on the back of the  intake  manifold 

[Kim K Kaiser]

Yes, thats it, when i was testvfitting, i didnt put on the spacer, and it does hv that connection,   thanks.