Bought big block camaro missing distributor

[mrtoni]

I bought my uncles 1967 rs camaro. It has a 396 turbo 350 originally a 327. Here's the hitch. He parked it 15 years ago when it failed to start. It was daily driver, one day it wouldn't crank although accessory power worked. He replaced coil, battery cables maybe other things. At one point he pulled the distributor and bought a unilite but never installed it.

It was garaged for the next 15 years.

I pulled spark plugs and am soaking cylinders in marvel mystery oil. I do not know if motor is free or not.

The dist cap is there with plug wires but if I replace dizzy now it would be blind luck to get timing anywhere close.

Plan is to let cylinders soak, change oil, rotate engine to tdc and install distributor. Go from there chasing electrical.

Any better ideas out there?

Matt

[trixter99]

If the engine turns over you might want to prime the oiling system before firing it up. And fill the carb with fuel to check for leaks.

[bnoon]

Agreed. If you have an old distributor laying around you don't need you can remove a few parts including the rotor, advance mechanism, and gear... and prime the oil pump by spinning the old distributor shaft with a drill. They sell tools to do this too, but old distributors are easily modified to do it too.

BTW, finding somewhere close to TDC is easy, just make sure you're at TDC on the power stroke (both intake and exhaust valves closed) not TDC between the exhaust and intake stroke (exhaust valve closing, intake valve opening). As long as you get it somewhere close, you should have enough clearance to move the dizzy around to find the right area where it will start. If you end up off a tooth, just move it one tooth one way or the other to get it right.

Do a compression check and/or leak down test while everything is apart as well. No sense spending money on a setup with a shot set of rings if a full rebuild is needed.