Y block trouble

can some one explain top dead center and where the rotor should be if it should point toward the number 1 cylinder at tdc

 

TDC---piston at the top,,on compression stroke,, put your finger in the plug hole to feel the pressure as you turn it over by the crank bolt, or roll in gear. # 1 cyl. RS in front,, #1 plug wire should be about 11 o'clock position on dist. cap as you face the firewall. dist. is counter-clockwise rotation. Fireing order 1 5 4 8 6 3 7 2

 

Top dead center is when the piston is at it's highest point. If you are trying to cold time an engine, you would want the no. 1 cylinder at TDC on the compression stroke. The easiest way to do this is to pull the no. 1 spark plug and put your finger over the hole while somebody else taps the starter repeatedly until you feel your finger just start to get pushed out by compression, then rotate the balancer a little more by hand so that your lined up on 0 or at your factory initial timing, which in your case should be somewhere around 6 deg. BTDC. Another way to find TDC on the no. 1 compression stroke if you dont have help is to pull the valve cover and rotate the balancer until the intake valve on no. 1 is closing and then align your marks. Once you are at this point install the distributor so the rotor is pointing at no. 1 on the distributor cap, which may be marked on the cap itself and I could be wrong, but should be at the 11 o'clock position on a Y block, looking at it from the front. Also some books show all older ford V8's having the same firing order, but the Y block is 15486372.

 

You beat me to it SI

 

I will add a little to scrap iron-As your pushing air out of the plug hole watch the harmonic balancer timing mark to line up with the pointer-When those come together thats TDC and if they dont then your harmonic balancer has spun on the rubber-If they are correct and line up then the rotor will be pointing to the number 1 wire-There is not many Yblock distributors that have been put back in the hole factory and the picture in the book may not represent the true #1

 

LOL we were typing at the same time and you won!!!