The bottom half of the engine rotates twice for every full rotation of the cam,
so the cam cannot be "180 degrees out". If the cam lobes are not at 10 and 2
on number one cylinder, it simply means that the crank needs to be turned one
full rotation around again to be on TDC... the timing marks go by twice, not
once. So, find your real TDC on #1 as described below (cam lobes at 10 and 2
on cylinder one), then remove the distributor cap and see where the rotor is
pointing... it should be just past the number one spark plug wire (because the
timing is advanced 15 degrees or so), number one wire being the right most in
the cap. If it is pointing over towards the left, then the distributor is 180
out, and while you can fix that by messing with the wires, it is better to pull
it out, take out the distributor drive gear and re-engage it so the slot is at
11:25 (like you are reading a clock) with the fat part of the slot is at the
bottom left and the thinner part is at the upper right. Then turn the rotor in
the distributor so that it points near number one on the cap and wiggle the
distributor back on, making sure you then switch your wires to 1-3-4-2, going
counter clockwise.
Greg Burrows
It is possible that the cam is in 180 degrees out. A quick way to check
is
to re-arrange the plug wires for a firing order that is 180 degrees out.
Another way to check is to put the crank at top dead center and look at the
#1 cylendar cam lobes. You may have to rotate the crank a couple of times
to get the motor at top dead center on #1 cylendar. If the cam is in there
right then the #1 cam lobes will both be pointing up. One will be roughly
at 10:00 and the other will be at 2:00. If the cam is 180 degrees out then
they will both be pointing down at 4:00 and 8:00. I ran a motor very hard
on the race track for almost a whole season with the cam 180 degrees out. I
just re-arranged the plug wires and it ran like a charm.
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