Finally gaining some ground

Hi,

Well I spent hours today in triple digit heat in my garage finding TDC of #1 piston on my straight 8 the hard way by turning the motor by hand using the fan with fan belt. (yes I did pull all the spark plugs first lol).

I found where the "0" should be and made a mark with a hacksaw blade and painted a white line using finger nail polish on the dampner.

I previously timed the car by ear...wow was I off.

The timing was about 20 degrees retarded so I brought it up to 2 deg advanced. The Motors manual and the Chilton manual disagree, one says to time it at 0 dead on and the other says 2 advanced.

The good news is I took it for a drive in the 105 degree temps and it did not overheat and it ran the smoothest it has ever run. even in first gear it runs without bucking. Now I really only need to replace the vacuum brake booster and the front and rear springs on the driver side and all the rest is cosmetic work.

Thanks to all the info on this site and the tech stuff I have gotten this far otherwise I would have flopped.

I thing my next car will be a "T" Bucket rod, it'll be easier to fix and fit in my garage better and probably get better mileage.

Oh well enough dreaming, back to work:cool: