Since I started refurbishing the truck, the headers have been bugging me . while dismanteling I found out the headers where only bolted down with 5 of the 8 bolts per side . This was because the previous owner used standard 6-point bolts, so the bolts where rubbing against the tubes. By using allen bolts and grinding out some of the holes I could get the headers properly fitted . But I was still not a 100% happy because I had to grind off a small piece of my left upper control arm too to get it properly fitted and two spark plugs sit directly below the outlet pipe ( see photo )
A while ago I bought some stock manifolds , but it wouldn’t fit because of a strange looking power steering hose .. which seemed much too long to me, but at that point I didn’t feel like I replacing it. So I kept the headers on.
Last week I did decided to replace the hose and while I was at it, I thought I might as well mount the standard manifolds… Guess what? They still didn’t fit! The left sided hits the engine mount and then too many holes won’t lign up.
So now are the headers back on..again
Then I got busy with my HEI ignition.. because I was smart enough to remove all the spark plug wires, assuming that there would be a mark on the distributor showing cylinder 1 .... But unfortunately I was wrong
So after some contemplating I realized that if the engine is at TDC ( top dead center ) that the rotor of the ignition should point to the first spark plug .. TDC can be seen on the harmonic balancer when the line Lines up with the 0 degrees mark.
1 cylinder must then be on the compression stroke , this I checked by taking off the valve cover and checking whether the rockers of cylinder 1 both had clearance .
the annoying part is that when the engine is at tdc , the rotor of the ignition is directly between two points on the distributor ... so I assume I take the one before the rotor as cylinder 1?, or after .. suggestions are welcome