Poor man's way to find TDC

[confutatis]

Hello,

Can anyone provide a procedure that would allow me to set my Ford Taurus 3.0 Vulcan TDC so I can go forth with installing the camshaft syncro assembly and sensor? Where is the #1 cylinder on this engine.

Any help, tips, suggestion would be appreciated.

Thanks,

David

[medicTA]

Hi confutatis
Number one cylinder is the one at the front of the motor left, closest to the passenger seat.
Trace the wire to the distributor and it should be attached at the 3 o'clock position if the dist. cap screws are at 12 and 6 o'clock.
Disconnect the battery and use a big socket and breaker bar and rotate the crankshaft pulley clockwise until the 0 on the dampner is aligned with the pointer.
If the rotor isn't pointing to number one, but is 180 degrees off, then turn the crank a full turn as it was on the exhaust stroke.
Also if you have the front cover off you can align the marks on the crank and cam gears and then turn the crank slightly to align the 0 and pointer for TDC.
If you also have the valve covers off, both valves on the number one cylinder will be closed on the compression stroke.
After aligning everything you will need to set your timing to specs after you get it running.