Ford 302 timing question

[Darrell C]

My dad is rebuilding a Ford 302 for his pickup. He is getting conflicting information regarding timing the cam to the crank. Normally, you place the crank timing mark at 12 o'clock, and the cam timing mark at 6 o'clock. However, he was told on his 302 to place both marks at 12 o'clock. The motor will not fire. Has fuel, spark and compression. A google search did not reveal a lot of info. Anybody have inside knowledge on this?

[Jeff Weston]

Darrell,

I can't help with timing the cam, but I did have a similar problem one time when I was swapping a 302 in my Mustang. I lined up the 1st piston to TDC and set the distributor gear over the corresponding wire. The only problem was I had it off by 180* and didn't align the spark with the compression stroke. Doh! I usually put my finger in the spark plug hole as I have somebody crank around the engine with a wrench on the crank dampener so that way I can feel the compression and make sure I have it lined up correctly.

[Darrell C]

He pulled the timing cover off last night, and both timing marks showed 12 0'clock. However, he did not know where he was in the rotation. I told him the same thing: pull number 1 and get it to TDC, then check the marks. However, he's not sure if both should be at 12, or should the cam be at six. I told him I'd never heard of setting the cam at 12.

[Dan-H]

The only Ford Manual I still have includes light test/rebuild instructions for 302, 351w and 460s, and the timing chain section is the same for each. This states the timing marks are 6:00 for cam, 12:00 for crank. The manual is a 1983 Pleasure Craft Marine Engine and rebuild guide.

IIRC, every ford I had apart had the cam timing mark at 6:00 and the crank at 12:00.

Caveat. This is fading memory, the last Ford engine I rebuilt was in 1990, which was a marine 351windsor.

[Dan-H]

http://comp.com/Technical/Instructions/Files/179.pdf

this is for a degree'd camshaft, but it has 6:00/12:00 in the instructions.

[Darrell C]

He got it running. Crank at 12 and the cam at 6. I told him to get ahold of the Ford guru back there that told him to time the cam at 12 and tell him to stuff it.

[derf]

Since you get one cam rotation for every two crank rotations, you can set it up at 12 and 12 and you can get it to work. If you set it up at 12 and 6 and do one full crank rotation, you'll be at 12 and 12. Do another full crank rotation and you're back at 12 and 6.

If you set up at 12 and 12, you just have to stab the distributor at 180 degrees off #1 or it won't run.


Most people just set it up at 12 and 6 and stab the distributor normally. There are a few people out there who insist on doing it the hard way though.