Start by marking the harmonic balancer at every 90 degrees. You can do so by wrapping it with tape or paper one time around, cut it to length, fold it in half twice and mark it where the folds are. Then wrap it around the balancer again with the end starting at the (0) mark. Make a dot on the balancer corresponding with each mark you made on the tape (4 including the 0 mark). Use a paint marker or squirt some spray paint into a cap, dip the head of a nail into it and press it on the balancer, usually makes a nice circle. Once you have your marks bring the motor to top dead center with the no. 1 cylinder on the compression stroke or this proceedure won't work. You can accomplish this by aligning the (0) mark on the balancer with the TDC or (0) mark on the timing tab and making sure that both lifters on no. 1 cylinder are on the base circle (all the way down). If not spin the balancer around one turn and check it again. Once you have it at TDC (0 marks aligned) with no. 1 cylinder on the compression stroke you can start adjusting both rocker arms on cylinder no. 1. If it's a solid set your lash specs. If you have a hydraulic cam tighten your rocker arm just till there isn't any play left in the pushrod and a slight drag is felt when rotating the pushrod between your fingers. Then tighten the rocker arm nut an additional 1/2 to 1 full turn to preload the lifter. After that rotate the balancer clockwise 90 degrees and adjust both rockers on cylinder no. 8 and on and on through the firing order (18436572) using your marks till your'e done. This proceedure should work on other engines too, as long as their cranks are indexed at 90 degrees and you use the correct firing order. Also on first fire up cold time your engine by putting no. 1 cylinder at TDC again and drop in the distributor so the rotor points at no. 1 on the cap. I usually set in some initial timing, around 12/14 degrees BTDC at tab with rotor and no. 1 post on cap aligned before starting engine for break in, then check and reset total timing before driving.
I left out one thing that would make this a little easier on what I liked to think was a near perfect tech post. A simple way to make sure that the piston is coming up on the compression stroke is by watching to see that the intake valve is closing just before you are half way around towards the TDC mark as you rotate the balancer clockwise of course. Also when cold timing the engine make sure it is on the compression stroke as well.
The Jalopy Journal
