Rebuilding 350 TBI NEED HELP

[xdelirious45x]

Ok I am in the process of rebuilding my 350 TBI. I took off the TBI and rebuilt it already. Next I took off all the sensors and drained the antifreeze to take off the intake manifold. Now I am in the process of replacing the cylinder heads with rebuilt ones. The passenger side I need to take off about 5 more bolts under the exhaust manifold, I have a lot of trouble because I unbolted the exhaust manifold bolts that bolt to the heads and they can not get far enough away to get to the rest of the cylinder head bolts. I was thinking about taking the entire exhaust manifold off but the spring loaded bolts that bolt to the y pipe are all striped. This is agrivating me because I sold my other car and now I'm stuck with a half rebuilt 88 k5 blazer.
Any solutions?

Also, I took out the distributor, however, I turned the crank until what I thought was TDC, but I am not absolutely sure that it is at TDC of the #1 cylinder. I did not replace the other heads yet, and I know that you need to set each cylinder at TDC when you replace the heads. I know about the trick of putting the screwdriver into the sparkplug hole, but how do I know when it is at TDC??
I need to know how to set the #1 cylinder to TDC. I noticed the slit in the vibration dampener. I tried setting it to the bracket that looks like this

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I am not sure I NEED HELP!!!

Thank you

[broughy84]

pull the sprk plug out of #1 and stick ur finger in it, have a friend bump the starter until the pressure pushes the finger out of the hole. look at the timing damper, your timing mark should show around TDC. hope this helps.

[xdelirious45x]

Will the distributor rotor be pointing to where the #1 spark wire would be? Because when I first turned the crank, it was pointing around where the #1 spark wire would be on the distributor. But I'm just guessing. I have to reset the distributor anyway cuz i gotta replace my cylinder heads with rebuilt ones but I need some advice on how to do it.
THANK YOU I APPRECIATE IT!

[pind]

Or, if you don't have any friends, take a chunk of toilet paper, wad it up, and stick it into #1 plug hole, then slowly bump the engine over with the starter. It will blow out with a very distinct POINK sound as the piston comes up to TDC on compression. roll the engine forward or back to line the timing mark up with 0 on the timing tab, and proceed.

Most units that I have experience with, if you remove all the exhaust manifold bolts, the manifolds will pull far enough away from the head, to allow you to remove the lower row of head bolts. Sometimes a gentle shove with a pry bar can help facilitate the manifold's move. With that done, simply unbolt, and remove the heads. Also, it may help to loosen or undo some of the forward exhaust hangers to allow the system to swing away a little more freely.

Beyond that, use a good torque guide and quality torque wrench when re-installing the heads, and good luck with the swap.

[xdelirious45x]

Hi,
I cannot find the timing tab on the truck, will it be right next to the vibration dampener?
I will try that toilet paper thing. Hopefully it will work.

THANKS

[broughy84]

yeah it should be on the crank pulley. Yes when it is at TDC #1 it should point at #1 spark plug wire.

[xdelirious45x]

Thank You For The Help, I'll Keep U Updated!!

[xdelirious45x]

good idea or bad idea??

Buy a cylinder compression tester and plug into the #1cylinder spark plug hole, turn the crank over one complete time for a test and find out the highest PSI. then i crank it over again until i reach that certain PSI which will be the TDC of cylinder #1?

GOOD IDEA??
BAD IDEA??
WHY??