Distributor swap day...questions.

[Jackal]

Replacing my original dizzy with a recurved Duraspark II, MSD Adapt-A-Cap, and MSD 6AL.

Do I want to use oil or grease on the new dizzy gear pre-installation? If grease, I have plain old high-temp bearing grease and Mobil1 synth. Which would be preferable?

There are multiple timing indicators mounted to the timing cover...what is that all about? I'm guessing that these are my timing marks and there is only one mark on the crank / balancer? If this is the case will there be markings for 13-14 deg? I am waiting for the car to come back from alignment so I can't get my hands on it for a few more hours.

I haven't yet bothered to check the crank for timing marks as it is all covered in grime. What should I expect to find and should I apply paint to anything for easier identification? I will be looking for 13-14 deg. initial. I assume this is with carb port vac disconnected.

Should I try to shortcut and just use the current rotor position, or is it best to start all over and identify TDC on #1?

Is the crank bolt standard RH thread?

[Drew Pojedinec]

Replacing my original dizzy with a recurved Duraspark II, MSD Adapt-A-Cap, and MSD 6AL.
Do I want to use oil or grease on the new dizzy gear pre-installation? If grease, I have plain old high-temp bearing grease and Mobil1 synth. Which would be preferable?

Can't say I've ever heard of doing that.  It gets hit with oil and shouldn't need any other lubricant.  Others may disagree but I've never done it and I've never had problems.

There are multiple timing indicators mounted to the timing cover...what is that all about? I'm guessing that these are my timing marks and there is only one mark on the crank / balancer? If this is the case will there be markings for 13-14 deg?

Multiple you say?  might be one of these:

I've never had one of those...  If you do have that, I'd assume you have one solid line on the balancer, and your light should flash on the number on the pointer when the solid mark is lined up with it.  That would be your timing.
I'm used to seeing the marks on the balancer like so:


I use a dialback type timing light so as long as I have two marks I'm good to go.

I haven't yet bothered to check the crank for timing marks as it is all covered in grime. What should I expect to find and should I apply paint to anything for easier identification? I will be looking for 13-14 deg. initial. I assume this is with carb port vac disconnected.

Ok well there are going to be marks on the balancer.  Typically rust and grime makes it a little hard to see them.  Old School way, we used to fire up the engine and just hold a wire brush to the balancer
Obviously for safety reasons you should do this with the engine off.... wire brush, lil sand paper whatever.  You'll see the marks but they'll still be hard to see.  I don't bother with paint, I use a piece of chalk and mark 0 TDC really well.

Should I try to shortcut and just use the current rotor position, or is it best to start all over and identify TDC on #1?

If you have to ask, you should put it at TDC  :-)

Is the crank bolt standard RH thread?

Turn clockwise facing the engine to rotate engine.

[Jackal]

Thanks Drew. Before pulling everything out, I checked the current timing and it looks like I have a round dot or raised bump indicator on the balancer. My indicator reads 0, 3, 6, and 10 from right to left. It is reading dead nuts on 3 at the moment with and without vacuum. 3 deg. advance, really?

ETA: She seems to like 10-12, had to back the idle screw off 1/4 turn to get back to where it was at 3 deg. Mounted the box, now gonna start wiring it in and swapping the goody bits.

[Jackal]

The old plugs are Motorcraft BSF3 and are heavily sooted. The replacements I got from O'Reilly out of their system are BSF42C or the new p/n SP-420.

All I can tell is that the new plugs should be 1 temp range hotter and they appear to expose the insulator about 3/16" deeper into the cylinders. Going to have to check one by hand for piston contact. Seems excessive.

The super retarded timing and cold plugs are likely why I haven't detected any pinging. Hope it stays that way. Ford Parts and O'Reilly seems to think these are the plugs. I'll have to look up what you said about the gap, but IIRC I intended to use .040-.050 or so with the large HEI cap.

ETA: Awesome, stroke check "confirms" I actually got a 390. I double checked though and got just about right on 4" of stroke. It has the small chamber "406" heads and dished pistons. Anyone know the approx. CR?

[Nightmist66]

Just my opinion, but you really shouldn't need to go past .040" on the gap. .035" should be sufficient, but if you want, the .040" should be fine also.

[Drew Pojedinec]

In my comparable compression, iron headed 429 I run a pretty cool plug with roughly the same ignition setup at .035 gap.  Perfect plug color.
I'm running NGK in the heat range 8.
I had some detonation with hotter plugs and WesAdams suggested these ones, they work very well.

Also in regards to timing, I know Scotty recurved that distributor, I suspect he gave you some info on what initial to run.  I would still double check max advance (Initial+ mechanical).  Getting the timing on these old iron pigs perfect REALLY makes a massive difference (both in performance and detonation resistance).

[Jackal]

Dammit, I have an intense lightning storm coming off the coil when shorting the MSD magnetic pickup wires, but nothing when they are connected to the dizzy. Nothing to the plugs. The Duraspark dizzy has a 3-wire connector on it, but I am using the MSD adapter that converts it to the two wire setup. I got 625 ohm resistance on the mag. pickup through the MSD adapter and a hair less than 1/2 vAC while cranking. It looks like the resistance is within spec, but supposedly I am supposed to see at least 1 vAC or I could have a bad reluctor (or air gap) and good pickup coil. Old cap and rotor didn't do any good either. I have a call into Scott.

Had to fight the hex shaft for a bit till I noticed that it didn't turn with the crank and I smartened up.

The MSD large HEI style adapt-a-cap fits nicely, but it is a perfect fit up against a 14" air cleaner at the #2 (order) lead on the cap, leaving no room for the plug wire. I will have to get it running and in time before I can mark and hopefully modify the air cleaner without wrecking the damn thing. It would fit perfectly between the #2 and #3 order leads, but timing would likely be WAY advanced and reclocking the dizzy doesn't help, only changes the order.

[Jackal]

Scott saved the day!!! I was using a new 30A relay to trigger the MSD and it cuts out while starting, had to move it to the right starter solenoid (small) post.

[Jackal]

Night and day difference in off idle torque and throttle response, but it smokes now where as it didn't before. I'm hoping it's just burning off carbon  build-up that the Seafoam didn't get. I have only put about 5 miles on it though so I'll get some in here tonight before bed and see if it's any better tomorrow.

Question about the distributor hold down "plate". How much are you supposed to tighten this down? It sort of acts like a leaf spring, so not sure if you are supposed to crank it on down or just snug it up.

ETA: The exhaust cleared right up. Time will tell if the marks on the wall / garage door behind the pipes will stay clean.