Q on SBC Timing marks

How many degrees off are the 80's style straight up marks vs the old style angled marks?? the 283 i put in my OT daily really threw me for a loop when i tried to time it, apperently the last owner put a Balencer that had the TDC mark on top and an aftermarket tab that faced the side and never told me about it.

 

There are enough combinations of balancers and pointers possible that I don't even want to check the balancer in my garage for you I think you would be much better off to find a piston stop and locate TDC, mark that and then use a degree wheel to find the right place for what ever tape or mark you want to use.
If you aren't familiar with using a piston stop, it's super easy. To make the engine easy to turn, label all the plug wires and pull all the plugs, install a piston stop in #1 plug hole, turn the motor by hand until it bumps the stop, mark the balancer or degree wheel, rotate the engine the opposite way until the piston comes back up and bumps the stop again, mark it. TDC is half way between the two marks. If you use the existing pointer for these marks, you are done when you paint the line for TDC.

 

I guess i'll probably just break out the old dial indicator and do it that way, just looking for an easy way out

 

i loke to use a hacksaw or a die grinder and put a groove in the balancer that way it doesnt disappear on you

 

feel inside the balancer for the keyway groove... that is inline for what was the timing mark on a 283's balancer. the pointer was spot welded to the timing chain cover

then sometime later , the mark on the balancer was moved about 7 degrees counterclockwise on the balancer..and the pointer was moved too

on 305's and some others with long water pumps the marks was moved even further


as scottybaccus said , there were a lot of different marks....it's best to check at tdc while installing the new balancer

 

You could find top dead center, then wrap a timing tape around the balancer with the zero lined up with the zero mark on the new timing tab. A timing tape is nice to have when it comes to time it.

 

Ok we have seen a ton of trouble with this. I like to build my engines in this way. When I finish degreeing the camshaft I then set the engine on top dead center,remove the degree wheel and hub and place the timing cover on the engine along with the timing tab,next I install the balancer as to mate the tdc mark with the timing tab. Then I index the balancer at the same time so I'll have the total timing marks referenced on the balancer. Now to make things even simpler yet I cut the timing tab to a point so the only marks of reference are the degree lines on the balancer and the single point to align the marks to. Now paint the white stripe on the total timing you wish to run and line the mark on the balancer to the pointer. And forget the fancy degree timing lights as all you need is a simple light that just flashes at 0. If you use this method the timing tab and the balancer will be indexed to the engine perfectly and all confusion will be gone as I have had some customers set the timing with a degree timing light at 36 on the light and 36 on the balancer for a total of 72 degrees that melts **** in a hurry !!!