I have a timing light i can see the notches on the plate and i marked with whiteout on my crank pully and its right in the middle of the plate while the car is running at idle. Doing research ive heard alot about TDC and someone was saying that an 81 N/A should be at about 8 deg. If someone could let me know where 8 deg tdc is compared to where i am at on my car that would be much appreciated.

 

There is a 10 degree marking on the timing plate. 8 degrees is two degrees above that.

 

Middle of the plate, that sounds like you're timing is advanced a good bit, that sounds closer to the Turbo timing.

 

so is that pretty bad on my motor because that is where it was when i got it

 

not bad, but not good. its probably just not running to its fullest. just have a friend twist teh dizzy until the little white mark moves up teh guage till it sits right at 10 degrees. and teh 8 degree thing you here is about where that little notch will be pointing at when you move by hand teh number 1 cylinder to top dead center. thats all that means

 

haha sorry how do you move that by hand?

 

Maybe the breaker plate plastic parts have broken and it stuck in a partially advanced state?

 

you can move it by hand by putting a socket wrench on the damper pulley nut, but you dont need to do that unless your droping the oil pump and shaft and crap.

 

how many deg is each notch?

 

what? lol, the timing plate right by the pulley will have the degree numbers marked on it, and theres only one notch on the pully itself

 

The plate next to the pulley goes in 2 degree increments, and at the top is 0, so go down and find the 4th notch, mark it with some white out. Then what you do is loosen the two bolts that hold the distributor to the car so you can turn the distributor, and then you'll want to turn it I think counter-clockwise to retard the timing, but just mess with it until the mark on the pulley lines up with the mark on the timing plate. Turn the car off, and re-tighten the bolts making sure not to move the distributor, once it's tight enough that you can't rotate the dizzy by hand you'll be good. Then start the car back up and check your timing to make sure it's still where you set it, if not, you probably moved the distributor by accident. Then you'd have to repeat the process.

 

oh ok thanks guys i appreciate it