928ntslow

Did you look inside the cylinder first to examine the piston head with your mechanics scope?...just for ****s and gigglles...you never know what may have changed from the time you set it all up to final check of TDC. Other than that, there should be no reason for inaccuracies other than the measuring devices.

A German machinest or engineer needs a spanking if TDC on the balancer is not TDC in the cylinder.

Actually, now that I look again, your pointer is not in line with 0lT...could be the angle of the camera though.

blown 87

Hi Keith
No I did not look into the cylinder. This is just a rough check of it.
I have found over the years that is is almost always dead on when locating TDC like this.
I have also found that the hub is almost never right and that cranks do need to be indexed sometimes.

The Germans are far better at this than the Americans as far as "Getting it right".

On a more interesting note, got home last night to a flooded basment due to a hot water heater leaking.
Any body have a tankless heater? how do they work out? Maybe that should be a post for OT.

svp928

You can zero a degree wheel the same way as using a piston stop-
Rough-center the wheel by cranking engine till indicator stops, set wheel and indicator at zero.

Crank engine clock-wise till indicator shows .020" BTC. Mark wheel, or write down reading.

Crank engine counter-clockwise till indicator again shows .020" BTC. Note reading on Wheel.

Add the difference between the two readings, divide by 2, and reset the wheel by the number of degrees you got with the math above. (IE, 1st reading was -12 deg, 2nd reading +8 deg. 12 -8=4.
4/2=2 deg. Move wheel so pointer is at 10 degrees. Should repeat going opposite way, showing -10 deg.)

Repeat clockwise- counterclockwise readings, the degree wheel should show the same number BTC going both ways.

There's you zero!

This is essentially the same way you do it with a stop, and it is important to go opposite directions and stop before top center each way, as this produces the same pre-load on the piston assy and indicator for each direction.
Hope this helps...

Steve

blown 87

Yep, that is the way to do it. is there any possibilty of a valve hitting the stop on a 32 valve motor when doing this with the heads on?
That is why I always have done it with the dial indicator method when the heads are on and a stop with them off.

Namvet

The time spent learning to read sparkplugs is still the most accuarate way of reading the engine. It requires chopping the IGN OFF, at WFO, under a load, but it is true.

svp928

I don't know, for sure, if the valves can hit the stop- But it is safer with an indicator on an assembled engine. There is so much drag, that its easy to over-crank against the stop, which will give you erroneous readings... and, if there is carbon on the piston, you may knock off a chunk which will also get you a bad read. .
I like indicators...

blown 87

???? I do not understand what this has to do with this????