400 sbc cam swap problems

The "straight up" pip or dot of the crank gear is not aligned w/the woodruff keyway! If you aligned the cam gear to the crank gear's keyway, the cam phasing is radically off.




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Now you're scaring me... I definitely lined the dot up with key way.. But key way said zero on it??? I think I took pic, let me try to post...

That's exactly why i ask if you did the timing chain swap, i was wondering which location you set it at, and i agree with Mark it's going to be way off.



Cole

There are two "zero" pips- one is to designate which of the three keyways is used to set the cam where you want it- retarded, advanced or (in your case) straight up. THAT pip is located next to the keyway itself. The other round pip is the one used to align the cam and crank gears, and is out by the teeth, and it's not aligned w/the keyway- at least on the three way timing sets I have used.

Yet another reason why I need to get a decreeing wheel!!!

Guess, I'll tear it down again... Going to still do compression test first... For sanity reasons! It'll also give me an excuse to finalize my serpentine swap. Let me get pic up first.. Last cam I ran a tooth off and have pic during tear down to show set up.

Good catch cobalt

I just checked picture, i'm off by two teeth, @$&*****&$!!!!

With the SBC, the keyway aligns with the #1 crankshaft journal. Therefore, when the keyway is 45 degrees to the right of straight up, the #1 piston will be at TDC.

TDC puts the dot on the crank gear straight up; just align the dot on the cam gear straight down next to it. Note that this puts the camshaft index pin at 3 o'clock - this is the firing position for #6 which is also at TDC. When you turn the crank a full turn, the cam dot will now be straight up, and #1 will be in firing position.

So having the timing gear off by roughly 45 degrees does this make sense that I have low power, diesel sound, but still able to fire and run at idle?

please delete

I would suggest you go ahead and check for bent p-rods and look closely at the possibility that the valves and pistons could have gotten together.

Because the cam is relatively mild, this may not have happened. But there's no saying for sure w/o checking. A leak down test would tell you what you need to know, a compression test will do if that's what you have to work with- just check the p-rods and realign the cam gears first before testing.

your photo looks right to me.