The Stupid Engine Questions Thread

[OBSOkie]

Are these gauges for the engine or the trans?

Engine.

There's an oil pressure port right above the oil filter, or you can tee off the oil pressure port behind the distributor.

For the temp, you want to be as near the thermostat as possible, but on the engine side, not the radiator side. The TBI thermostat housing had tapped threads, that makes it easy.

I just replaced my water pump and it had an area for a fitting on it. I ended up using that. If I had to guess it was part emissions maybe? My truck had it all removed when I got it. I found the spot on the drivers side of the head but it had a plug that was pretty damaged and I couldn’t get it out so I opted for the spot on the water pump.

As for the oil I’ll use those two spots. Is one better for pressure vs temp?

I’ve only got my water temp gauge so far so if there is better gauges to grab let me know. Just had so much trouble with my coolant I wanted to know exactly what it is running.

 

[akbrian]

A silly question about timing marks on a friends 1993 C1500 4.3L. The drawing in the service manual looks very different, and isn't particularly helpful. Can somebody please tell me what timing is associated with the various positions on the tab? I understand the 2nd line on the harmonic damper (not shown here) is used for setting the timing. He had pulled the distributor without marking it, so it's been a bit of a process. Thanks in advance.

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[Sean Buick 76]

A silly question about timing marks on a friends 1993 C1500 4.3L. The drawing in the service manual looks very different, and isn't particularly helpful. Can somebody please tell me what timing is associated with the various positions on the tab? I understand the 2nd line on the harmonic damper (not shown here) is used for setting the timing. He had pulled the distributor without marking it, so it's been a bit of a process. Thanks in advance.

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Remove the number one spark plug and instal a wine cork. Turn the engine over by hand till the cork pops out and line up the balancer at TDC. From there remove your distributor and drop it in so that the rotor sits under the number 1 plug wire on the cap.

Then remove the dist wire to the computer and set the timing to spec using a timing light. Then plug the computer back in. apparently the wire is located under the dash on the 4.3 I’ve read.

The 0 degree mark is here:

 

[akbrian]

Remove the number one spark plug and instal a wine cork. Turn the engine over by hand till the cork pops out and line up the balancer at TDC. From there remove your distributor and drop it in so that the rotor sits under the number 1 plug wire on the cap.

Then remove the dist wire to the computer and set the timing to spec using a timing light. Then plug the computer back in. apparently the wire is located under the dash on the 4.3 I’ve read.

The 0 degree mark is here:

Thanks! That helps a bunch. I was surprised the OEM manual was so light on the details in the sketch of the timing tab.

 

[akbrian]

It looks like Sean Buick's annotated photo was removed for some reason. I did come across a YouTube for a 1990 today that looks like the same timing mark teeth configuration, even if the actual timing tab is slightly different. It has the actual marking on it. I'm inclined to think the one on the 93 4.2L is the same configuration. Here's a cropped screenshot of it;

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which I think would work out to this;

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Any comments?