Well after months of struggling some info for you guys with 350Q engines. The mechanic that previously worked on and rebuilt my engines had no clue about the ignition timing. Folks here on the forum had good info but not all in one place. My distributors had been changed out to Mallory optical electronic distributors and coils. The mechanic on sea trial when questioned about the timing said there were no timing marks so he set the timing by ear. Along with the couls being mounted on the exhaust manifolds and the timing being severely retarded the engines would flood out when warmed up and have to sit for 45 min to restart. Seaching for the infamous “dimples” I busted a starter from back fires so I had a “startup” disk made for the raw water pully location that I could turn with a 1/2” drive. This allowed me to slowly turn the flywheel forward engine by hand and find the dimples. There are two. One for left hand and one for right hand rotation. There is a small hole drilled for TDC in between. I confirmed TDC by pulling the left valve cover and confirming both valves closed…. Otherwise you can be out 180° out. My port distributor was erratic so the previous owner replaced it after sea trial with the Sierra magnetic. No info on the centrifugal advance. I found there is a common head screw that adjusts the limit of the advance. Trial and error and a good timing light will get you there.
Hope this helps! Looking for a summer of good running in Puget Sound in Stardust 31 salon hull #1!
This is great info and even better timing (pun intended)!
I recently have had both engines rebuilt and will be assembling them in the next month. We changed over to electronic ignitions just prior to the rebuild and couldn’t see the dimples at the time and had to time it with a mark at as close to tdc as we could get and by ear from there.
The thought was when I put the fly wheels back on I’ll make paint marks where the dimples are to help us with timing. My 31 had the flywheel aft 327f’s and I’ve replaced the blocks with 350’s so I’d imagine seeing my marks will be easier than you guys with the fly forward Q’s.
Any more advice/tips/tricks anyone wants to offer on this thread to help myself and future members would be appreciated!
I found some really inexpensive 12”x12” plexi mirrors on Amazon that are now mounted on my foreward firewall…. Being able to see the front of the engine helps in all manner of things.
Solid idea. Good thing to do while I’ve got engines out