Plymouth 218 - how are the cylinders numbered?

Hello -

How are the cylinders numbered on a Plymouth 218?, i.e. is #1 the front cylinder, and #6 the rear cylinder?

I ask because I'm installing a Langdon's dizzy in my 218. I found the timing marks on the front damper, and set it at TDC (as best as I can tell). When I pulled of the cap, the rotor was pointing at the plug wire for the rear cylinder, so I'm a bit confused.

Yes, I looked through the factory manual, but they didn't seem to have that information.

Thanks...

Chris

 

Front cylinder no 1...sounds like you are 180 out. There is a small plug in the head by the rear cylinder for checking TDC, remove it and use a length of wire to test piston travel.
When the wire is at its highest on the compression stroke you have TDC then put in your dizzy so that the rotor points at the number 1.
Now you can start fine tuning.

 

The crankshaft turns twice for 1 revolution of the distributor. The firing order is 153624, so one time when the engine is at tdc the rotor will point at 6, the next time it will be at 6.

When it is pointing at 1 cylinder 1 should be on compression and the tappets will have clearance.

 

#1 and #6 pistons move in unison, but run different strokes. You can use a timing light off #6 and the timing marks will show the same as #1.

 

And yes, they are numbered front to rear. But what everyone else has said.

 

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/VHH36crKwkQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>