First Generation Firebird-L Mailing List .........................................................................
I realize now I should have done this before putting all my pistons in. Actually, I think it might be near impossible to get good readings without bunging up the top of the piston in the process. A rubber stopper over the bolt would probably kill the accuracy, right? Sheen> Hello Sheen,> > It's probably cheaper to get the pieces instead of a kit. I bought a tolerable dial indicator and magnetic mount for maybe 10 bucks at Harbor Freight. Once you have that all you need are a degree wheel, a solid lifter, a pushrod and a piston stop to help locate TDC. You can easily fabricate the piston stop from a piece of flat bar or angle iron. Just drill two holes that line up with head bolt holes in the block. Over the center of the piston, drill and tap a hole for a small stop bolt - 1/4 -20 is plenty. Insert the stop bolt and use a jam nut so the bolt can't move. Use caution when the piston is near the stop. I installed only the number 1 piston, and put it in without rings for the purpose of degreeing so that the crank had minimal drag (gives finer control as you turn it). Use a piece of stiff wire like a coat hanger or a piece of mig welding wire to make a pointer in front of the degree wheel. Just find a bolt hole or two to secure the wire so it> can't move around. This will make a very adequate pointer.> > Jim Hand has an excellent description of the cam degreeing process at page 32 of "How to Build Max-Performance Pontiac V-8s". > > Degreeing the cam is not difficult - "just do it"! I found my Crane Blueprint "068" cam to be one degree retarded, which I was able to easily correct with an offset key. Remember that one cam degree will equal two crankshaft degrees because the crank rotates twice for each cam revolution.> > David _________________________________________________________________ Explore the seven wonders of the world http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=7+wonders+world&mkt=en-US&form=QBRE ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Submissions to Firebird-L: <[email protected]> Unsubscribe from Firebird-L: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Help: <http://FirstGenFirebird.org/firebird/Firebird-L.html> Classifieds: <http://FirstGenFirebird.org/ubb/> Owner Pictures: <http://FirstGenFirebird.org/show/> Donations: <http://FirstGenFirebird.org/store/cart.mv?999999> FGF Merchandise: <http://FirstGenFirebird.org/store>
