I too just remove the dist. from the engine.

After fighting this battle for a couple of years (even with mirrors, you're really still pretty blind), I went with an optical ignition to get rid of the points and stamped timing marks on my flywheel. Once the dizzy is in and aligned, life is pretty easy :D Getting to it is a royal pain, but with practice and repetition, it gets to the point where you can pretty much do it by feel. Kind of reminds me of that old Beatles song....

What do you see when you turn out the lights?
I can't tell you, but I know it's mine....
Get by with a little help from your frinds;)

Since I still have the engine out, is there anything I should be doing, additional marks, etc, to make life easier later?

Are you reusing the orignal flywheel? My -6 flywheel has all the markings except 5 BTDC.

If you are working with a blank slate, I would add the three marks for valve adjustments(Z1 plus the other two), as well as a mark at full advance and 5 degrees (or wherever you think it will idle) for reference.

-Justin

Well, it's the one that was on the engine, not sure if it's original.

I was pretty lucky when I bought the engine for my six conversion, it had a flywheel marked and painted different colors for the various degree marks. Makes setting timing really easy, although I let the shop (mark Kinninger) do it! James, I'd say get a degree wheel and find #1 TDC, etc and then put all the possible sets of marks you might ever need BEFORE everything goes back together. Your life will be much easier afterwards.

timing
 

Take dist cap off, stick car in fifth gear with brake off, push car foward until rotor points at knotch in dist housing. Verify this by using a mirror to verify that the knotch on the fan belt pulley that has Z-1 on it is straight up. With the rotor facing toward the notch in the dist housing, Z-1 straight up(lining up with where the two case halves meet)use FBI paint, nail polish, whatever to mark the flywheel straight up. Then push the car 325 degrees and the front pulley will come up on the 35 degree mark. Use some other color paint to mark the 35 degree mark on the flywheel. Then push the car foward 5 degrees further so you can identify the 30 degree mark. Use some other color to mark the 30 degree mark. Do not push car backwards, it puts too much load on the chain tensioners and they might colapse. With the dwell set @ 38 degrees +/- 3 degrees now you can check the timing with a timing light. With these three marks on the flywheel, you can also check if the advance in your dist is working. At idle the timing should be 0 degrees, or where you marked Z-1. Above 3000 rpm it should hit 20/25 degrees, at 6K it should be somewhere between the other two marks you made. If this breaks your brainm like it did to write this, call me and it will be eaiser to explain over the phone.

Thanks OTTO. I'll paint the marks on the flywheel as soon as I'm back in town. And do this while I have the engine out of the car.

James