Thread: distributer degreeing?!!!!

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alright i have a 1965-67 chevy 283 and i have recently put vortec heads on it a larger cam and i am putting hei ignition on it... i have been told that 283 distributers are degree'd differently than any other smallblock so i most likely wouldnt beable to get a timing read on the motor... this which is true i couldnt find one... with all of this stuff im putting on my motor now, i would like to get an accurate timing read on the motor so i can see what is goin on, so can anyone tell me or help me with this how to degree a distributer? or do you know if a local machining shop would do it??/ any help would be great thanx!!

You need to pick up a new timing tape. The "larger" cam you installed has moved all of the original stamped timing marks on the balancer to somewhere out in space... That's why you can't see them.

Mark

no my friends did not tell me this... a tech guy from jegs... hah yeah i know i know but he did sound very knowledgeable. i couldnt find a reading when i still had all of the stock internals inside of it, so i know that it isnt from the cam or anything like that, and i know that this guy had some truth to him because he told me that an HEI would be a problem on the 283 before i told him that i couldnt find a reading .. so he wasnt feeding me bull ... so i dunno any other suggestions??

we had a timimg light on the truck like two years ago, we got it all hooked up and started low on the degrees and couldnt see a mark anywhere, so we carried our way all the way up to 42 advanced and still couldnt see anything,, it didnt even change the idle... so with this happening like 2 years ago, and the guy from jegs telling me that the hei on a 283 needs to be degree'd, before i told him this story,... there is truth there and i would really like to get this all correct before i drop the engine back in the truck so i can get an accurate reading... before we just went off of the sound, idle and the way it ran.. and thats kinda retarted so i want it right

ok what can you do wrong????? im telling you what happened and ur laughin??? ok thats kool its called a digital timing gun... individual degrees are read off a lcd screen display .. you know u can buy them from local autoparts stores and such...

alright thank you very much!!.. ... thats more along the lines of the answer im looking for... i apprieciate it alot ill make sure to give this all a try

Happy Birthday to your Son, Denny.


BTW, we need a new icon. One that says "I'm not laughing at you, I'm just being JOLLY !!"


Don

Changing cam or heads or whatever doesn't change TDC. If the marks don't work, something else has changed. Is the vibration damper original to the engine? Some small blocks have the pointer in a different place, that throws everything out of whack. HEI is a drop-in on any 283 or other SBC that came with points.

Sounds like the external ring on your harmonic balancer has turned, not uncommon with old, stock harmonic balancers. As said previously, put your engine at TDC on #1 cylinder, check the rotor to make sure it is pointing at #1 plug wire. If the timing mark on the balancer is not lined up with the pointer the external ring has slipped and you will never be able to get an accurate timing reading until you replace or rebuild the balancer. HEI is a drop in, works fine and lasts a long time.

i just bought an hei for my 283 and dropped it in an it worked fine i timed it like i would any motor.....im confused how this is a problem..... you can always just do it the old shade tree way haha twist it 'till is sounds happy haha

no the balancer is a brand new one because the old pos, had a huge crack in it.. but when i went to swap these, the timing mark on the balancer was in the exact same place.... so i dunno... because now when we just bolted the flywheel to the block here before we set the engine in, i had the distributer in where it was and it was still pointing at the NO. 1 wire and it also was at tdc.... so kinda confusing???!!


but yes i do agree with the im not laughing, im just jolly icon... haha

so maybe itll work this time..?? haha today we should be fireing it up so ill keep all of u posted

if everything is on the number one then you are fine.

Doesn't the SBC have a couple of different timing covers?

With differing pointer locations?

Originally Posted by C9x

Doesn't the SBC have a couple of different timing covers?

With differing pointer locations?

Yes,and possible timing tab loations.