Well, I know the MSD unit is working since I've ignited a mixture in the exhaust....

Walk me, slowly, through timing a 6, while it's in the car...

1-6-2-4-3-5....

And then set the distributor to the TDC mark.

Anything else I should be doing?

James

This is a 2 man job, being it's a new motor & all.

Bring #1 around to tdc.....and make sure
it's not 360 out. Line up the rotor to the TDC mark on the dizzy. Leave the dizzy loose enuff to turn with "some" hand pressure.

One body in the car running the wawa pedal and one to turn the dizzy....It can take some doing with a cold motor & Webers. When it lights off, keep it running, get it up to 2000rpms and keep it there (or above) for 20 minutes.

Good luck. No matter how many times I've done this, it gets the sweat rolling down the crack of my ass.

JP has plenty of experience in this area.


Good luck James. Let us know when you get it fired!

Dammit!

The Marelli does not have the same lineup as the Bosch.

The engine was put to TDC #1 and I everything lined up.

The mixture is getting ignited on every cylinder with the intake open. So obviously the timing is way off.

I'm suspecting that the engine was at TDC, but not on #1. Who wants to place a bet on which cylinder it was TDC for? I think it was set to #3...

Dammit, I'm going to have to yank the valve covers.

One thing I think is worth mentioning here is that timing marks are going to be different on an engine with a 2.4/2.7 crank...after placing an early flywheel on my 2.7, I discovered the timing marks didn't match those on the 2.7 pulley. If you have the right pulley for that crank, line up the marks and mark the flywheel to match.

As for finding #1, just remove the spark plug and slowly crank the motor (short bursts). When air shoots out of the spark plug hole, you have arrived at #1. This is most easily found if you have a hose from a leakdown tester to screw into the hole. Putting a probe down the hole at this point should touch the top of the piston close to the chamber and you should be relatively near TDC.

Hope this helps.

That's the easy way to find #1 TDC....or close. Then
line up the front pulley at Z1. "Trick": jack one rear wheel off the ground, put it in gear(3 or 4).....rotate the raised wheel.....that will turn over the engine....fwd or back. If ya got an LSD, fergit this

Once you're at TDC......looking at the dizzy...cap off..
the rotor should be pointed at about 10 o'clock....with 12 o'clock being forward. #1 plug wire should then be right over the rotor. It's easy to get one tooth off with a Bosch (and it's limited movement..... 15 deg or so rotation) dizzy....dunno bout Marelli.

Jaime,
tengo un examen final de espanol este miercoles. Despues de me examen puedo ayudarte.

Translation:
James,
I have a final exam in spanish this Wednesday. I can help you with it after that.

Besides I need to harvest some parts from your stash.

#3 would be very unlikely ...

#1 and #4 share a TDC mark tho ...

Sory, hit the wrong key...

#4 would be 180 out and that appears to be what I'm seeing.

Hmmmm. Maybe I should just rotate the engine around to the Z1 and reset the distributor to what should be #1.

My "helper" saw flame shooting out the carbs in "perfect" succession...

James

that's one approach...

another one guaranteed to have you banging your head at some future point is just to move all the plug wires around in the cap 180 degrees

but it's pretty easy to spin the dizzy body half a turn, although i usually wind up getting it one tooth off the first few times i try...

with a nice motor like that, tho, i'd think i'd want to -know- what's going on before i just start 'trying things' -- that's a desperation move for when you've exhausted all the logical stuff...

even in a /6 it can't be -that- difficult to verify the #1 compression stroke...

Pulled the valve covers off and reset the time.

And now the ignition quits...