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It is a 350 CI out of a stock 79 Corvette. Everything is stock untouched even the timing cover. The owner said it was a perfect running engine never been apart .. I can turn the timing by ear to where it runs perfect , but that doesn't explain the problem . Maybe I'll just run it !
Pictured below are the different orientations of the spark plug wires on a '79 Corvette 350 cu in small block vs the 327 cu in small block.
'79 Corvette Small Block 350 cu. in. Number 1 plug wire just to the left of window.
Small Block 327 cu. in. Number 1 wire just to the right of window.
This is interesting. A friend of mine has a 68 Chevelle with a 454. It wasn't running too good so he asked me to look at it. I put the timng light on it and it was way after TDC. So I set it at about 8 degrees and it seemed to run OK. Except for starting. When you cranked it it sounded like the timing was way advanced. It did start and we took it out. Now it smoked the tires and ran pretty good but still had a weird cranking issue. He took the car to get some other work done and the guy at the shop, who both of us know personally, said he couldn't figure it out either. Later this year we are going to pull the timing cover and check the cam and timing chain. It has to be something to do with that. that. These are not NASA rockets.
This is interesting. A friend of mine has a 68 Chevelle with a 454. It wasn't running too good so he asked me to look at it. I put the timng light on it and it was way after TDC. So I set it at about 8 degrees and it seemed to run OK. Except for starting. When you cranked it it sounded like the timing was way advanced. It did start and we took it out. Now it smoked the tires and ran pretty good but still had a weird cranking issue. He took the car to get some other work done and the guy at the shop, who both of us know personally, said he couldn't figure it out either. Later this year we are going to pull the timing cover and check the cam and timing chain. It has to be something to do with that. that. These are not NASA rockets.
I apologize for busting in on your thread but I am compelled to do so. Here, we have #1 plug wire hole being on drivers side, left of what would be the point setting window on an original style 327. Duke says #1 should be on the passenger side forward most hole. Does it matter to the timing marks as long as #1 piston is on TDC compression and the distributor is properly placed pointing to #1 on the cap? This is driving me nuts due to input I've received from members saying they have never seen a difference between #1 location between 327 and 350. If this is the case, then the timing pointer is in a different location on these 2 engines. Sorry for the intrusion...
I know Duke shouts at us that it does matter, and I believe him... but it makes no sense to me that it should. My brain keeps saying as long as you have free movement around the distributor to move the housing it should be time-able at any orientation of the #1 around the circle. If the rotor is in the proper position to send the spark to the #1 wire when the #1 cylinder is charged and pressurized, it should work no matter where the #1 wire is plugged into the cap.
Big blocks went through a similar wire to tower adjustment in the late-'60s/early-'70s to the 327/350 above...
Everything is where it is supposed to be and the timing marks still don't line up so I have to assume that the balancer has slipped , even though it looks fine . So i set it by ear . It started right up and I took it for a ride and it ran great. I'm done with it , problem solved !
[QUOTE=.67:72
Big blocks went through a similar wire to tower adjustment in the late-'60s/early-'70s to the 327/350 above...[/QUOTE]
Allow me to add to the confusion.
This is a photo of my 67 big block, MSD dist. , the points window, circled in red, faces the firewall, Make of it ,what you will.
Allow me to add to the confusion.
This is a photo of my 67 big block, MSD dist. , the points window, circled in red, faces the firewall, Make of it ,what you will.
An MSD distributor (for a Chevy) accepts a standard Chevy cap. However, on the MSD distributor body, for some inexplicable reason, the indexing notch for the cap is 180 degrees out from where it is on a Chevy distributor body. So if you install a Chevy window cap on an MSD distributor, the window will face BACKWARDS.
Of course, as you note, there is actually no need for the window on the MSD. It looks totally stupid though.
I have the utmost respect for Duke. His papers and advice at top notch. Now all the info about the proper rotor orientation and the dot on the drive gear are ,as I can tell, are Corvette specific. Only Corvettes have ignition shielding and all the factors must line up to get the timing set correctly inside the shielding. All other Chevrolets do not have shielding and many have the coil on the oposite side. There are 360 degrees in a circle and you have 8 equally spaced points around that circle. The advance IN the distributor is independent of those points. I forget who it was but it was either Smokey Unick , Bill Jenkins or another famous engine builder who said " just put the distributor in and let whatever spot the rotor points be #1. This of course was on race engines but You still can't change fixed points on your hardware.
Now I can't ask him what I should do about the vac can & tach drive, if I turned it 180
Kind of sorry I even brought that up, but you asked about it. The VAC and tach drive can be oriented the proper factory way even if you are using an MSD distributor. However, once that's done, the window will point the wrong way if you are using a window cap. That's just an annoying MSD anomaly. If it's too annoying, you can use a windowless cap (which MSD makes).
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