Finding tdc without a flywheel

[tomdean79]

I've just bought a 1988 2.5 8 valve second hand engine to drop into my car. Before fitting I want to change the belts and pulleys. The engine has had the clutch and flywheel removed by the shop I bought it from (making it ready to replace the rear main seal).

My question is how can I set the engine to top dead centre without the flywheel attached as I am not planning on taking the old engine out of the car until the new one is ready so don't have the parts to transfer.

[plyhammer]

Put a wood dowel in cylinder number one in the spark plug hole and crank it around until the dowel is at the highest point

[dgcantrell]

Use Plyhammer's method plus the mark on the cam gear. But double check it when you get the flywheel back on.

[tomdean79]

Thanks very much to both of you.

[Jfrahm]

It's best to measure for a particular piston depth before and after TDC and split that to find actual TDC. You'll find that the piston seems to hover at TDC for a few degrees since the piston speed relative to the crank RPM drops off so much near TDC and BDC.