4/6/2025
Okay first thing – The piston stop tool was a wash – it ended up that the middle screw was not long enough to touch the piston head – even at TDC
So what did we do? We did it the old-fashioned way, goddamnit. My wife was under the car turning the crank while I held my thumb over the 1st plug hole. Hole is blowing on my thumb? Compression stroke. Hole starts to suck my thumb in? Intake stroke. Vascilating between clockwise turning of the crank and anti-clockwise got us to the exact point that represented TOP DEAD CENTER. Finally.
In the end, TDC ended up being just under 10 degrees BTC. Awesome. Let’s get the timing gun out!
After using the timing gun and then the vacuum gauge we finally got her into the green. The funny part of this is that she ended up happy about 5 degrees BELOW TDC. Extremely unusual.
Why? I have no idea. I also have not tested her in real life situations at that setting. All I know is that after adjusting the distributor repeatedly, the happiest Emma got was 5-10 degrees below TDC.
Could be the cam, could be a vacuum leak, could be one of a thousand things.
Nevertheless, we are far better off today than we were yesterday (at 45 goddamn degrees OVER TDC).
Emma will remain up on ramps until I get home late next week, as I’m going on vacation!
Incidentally, go back to the first picture on this post – you see that hose that’s coming off the carburetor and going to the valve cover? Replacing that. Ordered it. It’s on the way. That mfer kept falling out – it’s obviously been there since Nixon.
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