sbc 350
Le Mans Master
Joined: Aug 2017
Posts: 8,336
Likes: 2,810
From: Cool Northern Michigan
Pull number one sparkplug, which is out front drivers side. Put your thumb over the sparkplug hole while a helper jogs the IGN key. Feel for the compression of air on the compression stroke while watching your "pre-marked" TDC balancer rotating towards the ZERO mark on the timing tab. Have constant communication with your helper as to when to stop cranking. If you go past TDC you will have to start over. Another way is with a breaker bar & socket on the crank snout, manually.
Racer
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 295
Likes: 58
From: Arvada Colorado
Another way is to pull the valve cover on the drivers side. When you crank the engine over, watch the closing of the intake valve on the No.1 cylinder. When the timing mark gets to zero, you are TDC. A tool that is helpful is a remote starter switch if you don't have a helper.
Drifting
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 1,346
Likes: 160
From: new iberia la
Pull number one sparkplug, which is out front drivers side. Put your thumb over the sparkplug hole while a helper jogs the IGN key. Feel for the compression of air on the compression stroke while watching your "pre-marked" TDC balancer rotating towards the ZERO mark on the timing tab. Have constant communication with your helper as to when to stop cranking. If you go past TDC you will have to start over. Another way is with a breaker bar & socket on the crank snout, manually.
Racer
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 414
Likes: 55
From: Humboldt county Ca
Unless your balancer is porked up you can find #1 on the dist, pull the cap, rotate the engine until the rotor is coming around to #1 plug. Look at the balancer and roll the engine till the "0" mark is lined up with the pointer. Should be #1 tdc. The rotor may not point to #1 post exactly but if it"s close and the balancer is at zero, you're at TDC.
Team Owner
Joined: Jul 1999
Posts: 65,492
Likes: 230
From: Orange Park Florida
IF the rubber in the harmonica balancer is shot, a fair chance the outer ring is slipped, so to not rely on the balancer for a definitive TDC indicator.......I would use #1 on compression you can feel, and of course dizzy firing position, and then to be most accurate, put a stick down in the plug hole, and feel the piston come up while you carefully rotate the crank by hand/wrench, that way you can prove the balancer is correct or not.....
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