meadlock87

I bought a '90 Ford F150 5.0 5speed. It had a lot of issues that needed buttoned up.. so I went ahead and and replaced the entire top end gaskests after cleaning up the heads, intake, and upper intake. My question is when I got the motor it had a rag shoved done where the distributor sho uldve been. So how do I drop in a new distributor without marking off where the original one sat. Does the #1 plug on the cap point to a certain spot? All this being said I've got the 1st piston on passanger side all the way up which tells me its top dead center. So can anyonr help me in dropping in a new distributor.

Chris_1

iTrader: (1)

It will get to TDC twice. Once on the compression stroke and once on the exhaust stroke. Wrong stroke, you'll be 180 degrees out.
You have to be on the compression stroke (intake valve will open then close, or use a compression tester) and once you are coming up on the compression stroke, you will turn it to 10 degrees before TDC.
Then you put the distributor in so that the rotor ends up pointing at #1 plug wire on the cap. The cap should be marked with a 1. Make a mark on the lower plastic piece that exactly lines up with that then remove the cap.
The rotor will turn about 10 - 15 degrees clockwise as you insert the distributor, so you have to start out with the rotor a little bit counter clockwise of where you want to end up. Do that as many times as you have to to get it right. Bearing in mind how the housing of the distributor has to end up sitting in relation to the intake etc.
Should get you close enough to start it, then you can set the base timing with a light.

meadlock87

Okay thank you I really appreciate that. I made sure the stroke of the #1 piston is all the way up. Ii slide a log handle screw driver in there and I can feel the top of piston.

meadlock87

Okay sorry I've got one more question. Now when you 10 degree befor e TDC yo ur meaning where the overall timing mark is on these engines which is 10 past TDC or 10 degrees in the opposite direction which would be Bottom Dead Center?

Chris_1

iTrader: (1)

No. Clean up your timing marks really well. It will say "before" and "after". you will want the pointer thing to be at 10 before TDC. Has to be on the compression stroke.
They just had that on 'fired up garage'. The distributor was 180 degrees out. Engine wouldn't fire. Because they set it up on the exhaust stroke. They probably did that just on purpose to make the show interesting but it does happen a lot in real life. People set the distributor up perfectly to 10 BTDC but they don't make sure that it's on the compression stroke.

meadlock87

Okay so ill degrease and scrub the balancer and mark it. 10 before tdc. But if I'm corect when timing its 10 after tdc that's spot on where it should be.

Chris_1

iTrader: (1)

I believe the timing should be set at 10 to 12 degrees BEFORE TDC. The idea is that the fuel gets a little head start on burning before the piston gets to the top and starts down on the power stroke.
If you set the timing to after TDC the piston would already be heading down before the spark plug even fires. That's not what you would want to have happening.

I'm not sure who's telling you to set it at after TDC but I don't think they're correct.

meadlock87

Your 100% correct is 10 BTDC... I there any benefit to slightly advancing it?

meadlock87

There is one thing I forgot. Where #1 is labeled on the cap. Does is point towards a certain end of the intak or just anything I can refrence it to. In order to get it dropped in right?. I know being even a tooth off can cause problems. So I must ask

Chris_1

iTrader: (1)

If I remember it right, #1 is kinda towards the steering wheel.