How's this for a headache. I'm taking an engine rebuilding course and doing my slant up right. I bought a isky 256 cam had the head shaved bigger valves, new everything...I am at the point where I was degreeing my cam. Have a nice Huges double roller. All the numbers were off 14 degrees (one Tooth). So my teacher says try a different timing set.

I got a cloyes and all the numbers were off 19 degrees (one tooth). This can't be must be that the cam is off. So we move the cam gear one tooth advance and all the numbers are about bang on. Fine..I go to put on my harmonic balancer and the timing marks are off 180 degrees. How can this be. My engine is out of my duster vin # matches...Teacher says maybe the balancer is off a van they used to time them from the bottom??? Who knows???

I didn't have much luck with my isky kit sent wrong springs, shims, aluminum retainers and a cam that was not produced to specs. I also got two cam cards in the box that were different by 6 degrees...What a headache I would not buy anything from isky ever again.. There customer service was terrible too.

Sorry for the long post just venting I guess. Anyone else have similar problems with their cams and parts? Thanks for reading... Brent

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Arizona Duster in Canada

I have lost count on how many timing gear sets / cam combinations that were way off "out of the box".
Be glad you took the time to degree your cam and work through all the issues caused by poor quality control on parts.
Your engine will run well as a result of your time & efforts.
DD

When you were degreeing the cam you were using the #1 intake lobe not the #1 exhaust lobe right? #1 intake is the second from the front.

The big timing mark on the damper lines up with the '0' on the timing cover when #1 is at bottom dead center?

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Joshua

When we degreed it we measured all the timing events. We started out on the exhaust and measured open and close on them. Then we moved back to the intake and measured open and close there too. All were out 19 degrees from what the cam card was. We used the .50 lift method to degree it.

As for the dampener..Yeah when #1 is at TDC the timing mark is on the bottom. Anyone know if on a slant from a van the dampener would have the marks on the bottom? Would make sense.

Brent

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Arizona Duster in Canada

Should this be lining up when the piston is at TDC, or am I being stupid and missing something here ( wouldnt be the first time lol).


73northernDuster, are you sure there is not a mark on the dampaner somewhere else. Maybe its smaller and needs cleaning to see but something dont sound right. I had a 67 Dodge van and its pionter was at normal location(not on the bottom) but maybe it was not the original engine. Some had the pionter on the driverside of the engine and some had the ppionter on passenger side but I dont recall seeing any that was at the bottom. Where is the timing mark on the ballancer in relation to the crank keyway, 4 oclock, 8 oclock? It is possible the outer ring has slipped and not in the right possition. But the timing mark as far as I know should be lining up with the pionter when the piston is at the top of the compression stroke ( after the intake valve has closed and the piston goes down and then back up top). How many pulley grooves does your balancer have, I guess it could be a industrial balancer and had marks at the bottom for some reason. I may be wrong and there is a /6 that had the marks on the bottom but I havnt see it if there is.


Jess

Done some reading on the subject. The timing cover has the tab welded on the drivers side of the engine. From looking at damperdudes site it would seem the timing mark on these engines would have been at 88 degrees but they list it as being from 60 to 68. My car is 73 and has air which would seem that it should have had the tab on the passenger side with the mark at 5 dergees and from 69 and up. The teacher feels that the the the ring has most likely slipped a bit but said that if it had slipped by 100 degrees or so it would have come apart by now???

There are a few 80 pickups in the local junkyard so I think I'll go see if I can get a look at one of those if there good I'll get one of those and see how things go...if not we'll just make new marks on my current balancer..Wish me luck. With all these timing issues I hope it runs once it's back together, I've spent a small fortune on this thing already...

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Arizona Duster in Canada