Thread: Damper question

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I have a 400 cid motor in a 57 chevy I bought. The motor runs good and starts right up everytime. I tried to check the timing because it seemed a little advanced. With the light I couldn't see the mark on the damper. I figured it was painted over and dirty.
I recently pulled the motor. I'm going to change out the distributor from a HEI to a smaller MSD billet because of clearence issues at the firewall. With the engine on the stand I removed the valve cover on the #1 cylinder side. I removed the #1 cylinder spark plug and rotated the crank untill I felt air coming out of the hole. I checked the valves and they were both closed at the #1 cylinder indicating compression stroke. The distributor was also pointing at the #1 cylinder.
My problem is the timing mark on the damper was about 90 degrees to the left of the timing tab. (counterclockwise). I've read that when you position the crank the key should be in the 2:00 position. It looks like mine is in the 9- 10:00 position. That's why I couldn't see the mark when I tried to time it.
Can I leave it that way, degree the camshaft and mark the damper to the timing tab? I notice that the damper is balanced. With the piston at the TDC at #1 is the damper balanced to that position?

Thankyou,

Ralph

Sounds like you have a bad balancer. The outer ring can come loose,and it sounds like yours has shifted. Best to take it off and thoroughly check it out,be prepared to buy a new one. Hank

Originally posted by Doughnut
I have a 400 cid motor in a 57 chevy I bought. The motor runs good and starts right up everytime. I tried to check the timing because it seemed a little advanced. With the light I couldn't see the mark on the damper. I figured it was painted over and dirty.
I recently pulled the motor. I'm going to change out the distributor from a HEI to a smaller MSD billet because of clearence issues at the firewall. With the engine on the stand I removed the valve cover on the #1 cylinder side. I removed the #1 cylinder spark plug and rotated the crank untill I felt air coming out of the hole. I checked the valves and they were both closed at the #1 cylinder indicating compression stroke. The distributor was also pointing at the #1 cylinder.
My problem is the timing mark on the damper was about 90 degrees to the left of the timing tab. (counterclockwise). I've read that when you position the crank the key should be in the 2:00 position. It looks like mine is in the 9- 10:00 position. That's why I couldn't see the mark when I tried to time it.
Can I leave it that way, degree the camshaft and mark the damper to the timing tab? I notice that the damper is balanced. With the piston at the TDC at #1 is the damper balanced to that position?

Thankyou,

Ralph

Check out a company called Professional Products.You should be able to buy a good balancer much better than stock for around$70.

Easy to tell if ring has slipped on hub:

Early dampers had O degree mark that is 2 degrees off from the centerline of the keyway.

69 and later dampers had the 0 degree mark located 10 degrees off of the centerline of the keyway.

You can eyeball the keyway to timing mark,on an 8 inch OD damper, one inch on the circumference equals 14.3 degrees (appx). Therefore, if the timing mark relative to the keyway centerline is off by an inch, something has slipped.

This test requires no Snap On tools but I bet they make one for it.

Doughnut, you need to find "true top dead ceanter", you will need to buy or make a piston stop.Remove all the spark plugs to make the motor easier to turn over by hand. Screw the spark plug adapter into #1 cylinder. Turn the motor over in the direction of rotation (clockwise as you face the front of the motor) until you have the notch on the damper at about 12 noon. Screw the inner rod down into the adapter until it bottoms against the top of the piston. Make a mark on the damper where the timing tab is pointing. Turn the crank counter-clockwise until the piston comes up against the inner rod again. Make another mark on the damper where the timing tab is pointing. Halfway between these marks on the damper is True Top Dead Certer, then mark the damper with a centerpunch and put a dab of paint in the centerpunched cavity. you can have your TDC anywhere you want it on the HB as long your piston is at True TDC. The HB may be bad, but the keyway should be where its always been.

Everyone is getting way to technical.Just take a look at the inertia ring and if you can see any of the rubber that has chunks missing or if it cracked very badly take it off and put a new one one.Keep in mind that it spins all those r.p.m.s and has to (dampen all the harmonics).I saw one come loose at the drag stip a long time ago and it put a very nasty dent in the hood of the car.

If everything is at TDC on the #1 piston, or appears to be, should the mark on the damper be some where on the timing tab? Also when you build an engine sould the key on the crank be pointed at the 2:00 position? With everthing at TDC, my key on the crank is at the 11:00 to 10:00 position

Thanks for all your help.

Ralph

Dough......

Are you sure that you are at TDC? As LT1S10 explains, you must use a mechanical method to find TDC.....a finger over the plug hole gets you close but not close enough.

The crank key location can only change one way....and you dont want to know about that.

Find real TDC and go from there.

mike in tucson

I will do that. Thanks for all of your help.

Ralph

Another "beware"----Last year I damn near went nuts with the same problem in a 305.---engine ran great, but timing mark was way off. Then I found out that I had bolted on a timing pointer for a 350, which actually points to a totally different place than a 305 timing pointer.

Originally posted by brianrupnow
Another "beware"----Last year I damn near went nuts with the same problem in a 305.---engine ran great, but timing mark was way off. Then I found out that I had bolted on a timing pointer for a 350, which actually points to a totally different place than a 305 timing pointer.

Thats the reason, if there is a ? you need to find the "true TDC".

It1s10---My capacity for doing dumb things never ceases to amaze me---. After nearly going into a melt down trying to set my timing, I did exactly what you suggest----I pulled number 1 plug, did the welding wire down the sparkplug hole trick, and after finding true TDC I scribed a new line on the damper that lined up with the new shiny chrome timing pointer.
Probably should have went and bought the right timing pointer, but being naturally cheap at heart it was easier to scribe another line on the damper.
After that I fired it up, and sat the timing to spec.

Originally posted by brianrupnow
It1s10---My capacity for doing dumb things never ceases to amaze me---. After nearly going into a melt down trying to set my timing, I did exactly what you suggest----I pulled number 1 plug, did the welding wire down the sparkplug hole trick, and after finding true TDC I scribed a new line on the damper that lined up with the new shiny chrome timing pointer.
Probably should have went and bought the right timing pointer, but being naturally cheap at heart it was easier to scribe another line on the damper.
After that I fired it up, and sat the timing to spec.

You did exactly what i would have done.

And exactly what I'm going to do too.
Thanks,
Ralph