How to Assemble the Front of a Small Block
I hope it is OK to add helpful hints. At the above pictured step I set the timing gears so the "dots" line up at 6 o'clock,top gear and 12 o'clock, bottom gear as the book states THEN rotate the engine 1 time so the "dots" are 12 o'clock on both gears. Next I go to the back of the camshaft and paint a yellow stripe (front to rear) (about a half inch long) that can be seen thru the distributor hole. This will help later finding TDC compression stroke (for lining up the rotor). If you have the balancer timing marks lined up and you don't see the yellow then it's not TDC comp #1, and if you do see yellow, your good to line up the dist rotor to the left front intake manifold bolt.
I hope it is OK to add helpful hints. At the above pictured step I set the timing gears so the "dots" line up at 6 o'clock,top gear and 12 o'clock, bottom gear as the book states THEN rotate the engine 1 time so the "dots" are 12 o'clock on both gears. Next I go to the back of the camshaft and paint a yellow stripe (front to rear) (about a half inch long) that can be seen thru the distributor hole. This will help later finding TDC compression stroke (for lining up the rotor). If you have the balancer timing marks lined up and you don't see the yellow then it's not TDC comp #1, and if you do see yellow, your good to line up the dist rotor to the left front intake manifold bolt.