Can someone install a distributor wrong and compensate for the motor to run?

[Jim_0068]

Well this is looking like what someone did to my brother's motor. I am going off of Wayne's book "how to rebuild and modify..." and i am looking at page 178 and page 190.

Now my problem is that with the Z1 mark lined up with the notch in the case my tip isn't pointing at the notch in the distributor per page 178, it is pointing in a different spot (more on that later).

So i decided to re-install my distributor cap (this is a top end rebuild only (i also didn't remove the distributor) and decided to match up the wires with the labled wires on page 190 and what do you know?

All of my plug wires are 2 plugs off!!! Now if i do move the crank to get the rotor tip to point at the notch in the distributor i believe that i am at the 120* marking on the crank pully which would make sense because my rotor tip is about 120* away from where it should be (2 plugs away)

So when the last person put it together could they have installed it wrong and compensated enough on the timing to get it to run? If so that is amazing because the car ran pretty fine to me when we drove it for one summer. The only problem it had was blowing smoke on de-cel hence the top end rebuild.

Anyone have any ideas? Pull the distributor and re-install at the proper mark, time the cams, adjust the valves and hope and pray?

I'm starting to cry over here

Jim

PS If you are curious what i mean by "2 plugs off" what i mean is if you look in the book @ page 190 and starting with plug wire #1, that is my plug wire #3. For plug wire #6 in the book, that is my plug wire #5. And so on and so forth

[ChrisBennet]

Originally posted by Jim_0068
Re: Can someone install a distributor wrong and compensate for the motor to run?

Apparently, yes.
-Chris

[Jim_0068]

Chris thank you for your answer to my previous thread....that was exactly what happened.

they installed the distributor the wrong and just moved the wires to compensate for the inccorectly installed distributor.

[911pcars]

Spark distribution depends on the relationship between the rotor, distributor cap and TDC. As long as the relative positions are maintained, no problem. However, on most cars, the distributor (and cap) can't always rotate to the position of the rotor due to physical interference with an engine part. It's best to keep with the factory configuration unless there's some advantage not to do so.

My first automotive experience was in high school awhile back. We R&R'd a friend's spark plug wires with some hot rod "see-through" versions (original rice). Of course we didn't know what we were doing and the engine backfired and made general explosive noises out the tailpipe. But through trial and error, we eventually got it to run right. How many combinations of firing order are there with a 6-cylinder Chevy?

Sherwood