Off by a tooth?

[Longgone]

I got the 440 stroker cranked today and almost immediately put the timing light on it. To get my 38* BTDC at 2500 rpm with vacuum plugged I had to bring the distributor much more forward than usual. The vacuum advance is usually about parallel with the front of the car, as it is now (timed correctly) it`s about 30* forward. When I installed the oil pump/dist drive gear it was not perfectly straight, so I tried it a tooth the other way and it was even worse. That didn`t fly so I put it back the way I had it initially. It was installed with no. 1 cylinder at TDC on the compresssion stroke( lash in both valves). Is it possible I`ve got the timing chain off 1 tooth? I went over it at least twice before putting on the timing cover. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[moper]

It's real easy. but, if it was one tooth off, it would be much harder to tune. It may just be your combo. I would fire it and get the cam broken in with the timing where ever it will run the best for 25 minutes at 2500. Then worry about the timing. A good first step would be taking a compression reading on one cylinder. Post it, with the cam and true compression of the engine. If it's real low, it couild be a tooth off.

 

[dogdart65]

depnding on the quality of the cam, & timing gears, the centerline of the cam can be off. I've seen off brand peices that had the cam timing off by 4+ degrees. That's why you should always degree your cam, plus you can't really plan any changes if your not sure where you start at.