rbohm said:
actually there are three different timing mark locations on small block fords.
Thanks, and lets dig deeper as new topics are sometimes hard to find.
This is telling us that perhaps the key-way is located in a different place on the 351 crank as opposed to the 289/302 crank?[/QUOTE]
no the keyway is in the same location on all ford engines. however the opposing keyway in the dampner is in different locations. you can tell which you have if you set the #1 cyl at tdc, and then put the dampner roughly in place and and seeing where the timing marks line up. then just get the right pointer.[/QUOTE]
Yes, you can get pointers that will work on opposite sides, but one must also be concerned with the water pump hose inlet. If the balancer is one that is mis-matched with your water pump it will not be visible if the pointer is behind the inlet.
Case in point, when I first installed my 70' 351 in my 65', I used the original 70' balancer with 4 bolt pulleys, the 70' model timing cover which had the pointer on the passenger side, and needed a pre-70' small block water pump (289) so that the hoses would reach the passenger side radiator outlet. Had to time the darn thing by ear (or I could have found TDC as I mentioned above and marked the balance on the LH side.)
Because I wanted to maintain a original appearance, when I later rebuilt it I used 69' and earlier parts (289/302/351w) which matched my passenger side radiator. Specifically I swapped on a 289 timing chain cover, added a 289/302/351w 3 bolt balancer, a 289 3 bolt bottom pulley, and again used the 289 water pump. It all matched perfectly and I can properly see my pointer and timing marks.