mazda_racer

Another angle:

mazda_racer

And another:

BadGuyD

Crap. Sorry, man. I told you wrong. The pulley bolt will have to come off to expose the e-shaft key, but don't do it, you could mess up one of the front e-shaft bearings. You will just have to try the four different positions until you find the correct one. Not a big deal, though, but a pita.

Here's the basic steps:

1) Put the pulley on and rotate the engine until the needle points to 0 degrees. This is TDC. (I'm assuming you got an aftermarkey pulley.)

2) L1 fires at TDC, so with your distributor out of the car, set the distributor cap rotor to point to L1 by referencing the distributor cap, (the dist. cap rotor arrow should be pointing to the rear of the car, if memory serves.) Then drop the distributor in, hook everything up and try to set timing as a friend turns the engine over for you.

3) Repeat as necessary.



When you try a different pulley position, you will need to reset the dist. cap rotor, also. Don't forget.



This will get it close enough to start. If it doesn't start after a decent amount of cranking, try the next pulley setting. Don't give up on a setting right away, though, since this is a new engine that hasn't ran yet, it may take a bit to start.

I recommend using a good charged battery AND a jump kit, or second battery.



BTW, if you're using a stock pulley to find the TDC mark:

locate the two dots on the pulley that are about a centimeter away from each other. The one of the right is the TDC mark. The engine rotates clockwise (looking from the front) so, the first mark it hits is L1, or TDC. 2nd mark is L2's TDC.

I hope this helps.

BadGuyD

Looks pretty sweet, BTW.

BadGuyD

Ah, and one more thing, a couple tips about starting it. If it gets to the point where it's catching, or trying to start, but isn't, try jabbing the gas pedal a couple times when it's catching, this should help. As in jab, I mean floor it all the way for maybe half a second (or less) and let off real quick. Do not floor it more than 1 second when you turn it over, though. It usually makes it worse, also not giving it any gas doesn't work all that well, either. Although, sometimes I have started an engine by just flooring it and turning it over until it finally started. Not the best way, but it works sometimes.

Once it starts, it probably will want to idle, so you'll need to feather the gas a bit until it's warm. Starter fluid can help too, but use sparingly.

Anyways, good luck!