Help!! I have rebuilt my 1999 suburban w/ a 5.7 engine. I had it running and idling really good, but when I drove it and tried to accelerate it was sluggish but still wasnt bad. When I rebuit the engine I never messed around with the cam or the timing chain or sprocket. I pulled #1 spark plug out and cranked over engine to TDC on exhaust stroke and made sure timing marks were lined up on balancer which they were. Then I lined up the dimmples and the bottom on distributor there was 2 of them on the bottom. Then I made sure those dimmples were lined up with a white mark on top of shaft on distributor. I placed distributor back in the manifold. But for some reason I cant figure out when I put my rotor cap on it wont point to the number 1. It points other direction. I tried to turn rotor cap so it would point in the right direction but the holes dont line up. There are 2 small plastic pins on bottom of rotor that guide it to the mounting plate on top of distributor. For some reason the guide pind wont let me mount the rotor so that that it is facing towards the number 1 on distrubutor.
what am I missing? thanks
I do not know that engine, but it sounds to me like you need to re do the distributor. 180 degrees off? What are the results when you check it with a timing light?
@Barkydog nailed it. Common mistake. There is a “compression” TDC and an “exhaust” TDC. Turn your distributor 180 degrees.
Thanks ill look at that.
If the engine will run the distributor is not 180* out. To properly set the timing the base timing connector must be pulled and a timing light used. If you incrementally rotate the distributor counterclockwise a few degrees with the engine off and test drive it you will likely get some improvement if a timing light is not available.
If your timing marks are correct and the engine runs . . .
You have to set cam retard (some call it cam synch) with an OEM (or enhanced) level scan tool
Should be 0, plus or minus 2 degrees