350 Timing Question
 

Just fired up my 69 vette after its rebuild. It started right up! However... Confused as to the timing. I plugged off the manifold vac line but left on the vac advance to the distro. When I put a timing light on it the mark on the harmonic bal was WAY off. it was about 2" below even where the timing indicator was on the retarded side. The motor ran fine. What did I do wrong?!

Any help would be appreciated as I hope I really did not screw it up.

my guess would be that you aren't on the #1 plug wire ( driver side front) or your balancer has slipped

For sure on #1. Bal is new. BUT I marked the first line I saw on it with white paint. But then just noticed that further around is has additional marks from 0 - 50 I think... Will remark this tomorrow and see how it looks.

You need to remove and plug the vacuum line to the distributor advance.

I will be sure to do that. I thought that is what i was supposed to do. But then talked to a guy today before I did it and he told me to keep that on and plug the vac from the manifold. ugh.

I have been building this car since 09. And the motor was the 1st thing I finished and has been sitting since then. With my memory turning to mush over the years I can honestly remember the whole build as the time. Am I correct to say that if it is running very smooth and has good response to rpm that it is most likely assembled correctly? My fear is that I would have messed up the install of the timing chain or distro. But other then the timing marks being off it seems to run great. Started up only have turning over 3 or 4 times.

Timing has to be close since it started so easy- that's a good thing. Double check your "0" on the balancer and the tab. When you get those both confirmed you're off and running.

What direction is below?
 

The timing marks on the dampner should show the advance is increasing clockwise as u face the engine. 2" below would normally mean down and that would be in the clockwise/advance direction. When i look at my dampner markes with the t-light from the front of the engine it shows TDC with increasing advance to the right or clockwise or lower direction or "below" TDC.
Your post reads like u have the retarded direction mistaken for the advance direction.

Do u know where your TDC mark is?
cardo0

I know it is early , but when you say what you did in post one , are you saying you left the vac adv hooked up to a vac source ? Or are you saying you plugged it off at the manifold ?

I wonder if you set the timing with the vac adv hooked up and now with it disconnected the timing dropped off dramatically .

The timing chain and distributor are PROBABLY installed correctly. However, this is a situation where two wrongs CAN make a right. If the spark plug wires are installed on the wrong distributor terminals but in the correct sequence the engine CAN run well. For now, I would assume that everything there is installed correctly.

The engine running very smooth with good response does NOT mean that the timing is correct. An engine with the timing retarded (to a certain degree) will run smoother than one with the correct timing. That is not good because it will run hotter than it should, use more gas and it could burn your valves. You need to get the timing set correctly.

It also could be that you have the wrong balancer... Do you have the part number for your balancer?

:iagree::iagree::iagree:

This was my situation, then I understood how to put it right...