From what i understand you cant really tell what side is which from just looking at it, so i am not sure what i would be looking for. When i take out the dizzy i can see part of the gear so if its something obvious, please do tell and i can check.

 

In the FSM it says there is an "F" on the distributor gear. The "F" side goes towards the front.

 

If I remember correctly mine had a marking that looked kinda like an f but closer to an A. If I am not mistaken I put that to the front, but that was over 2.5 years ago so I can't be sure.
A bridgeport should be able to start with about 15 to 16 deg btc for leading and 5 to 10 deg split. Right? I am going to hook up the timing light this weekend and see where it's at.

 

I don't even look for an F mark.

 

I look for the "chamfer" side like the arron cake video on youtube that I watched over 4 years ago. I've never seen an F mark, but the oldest rotary I've ever dealt with is from 86.

And every time I put a front cover on I'm paranoid as hell about that timing gear.

 

Chamfer side forward or back?

Jeff. What do you look for?

 

The spark fires when the tip of the reluctor wheel aligns with the sensor. Ignore dots and marks and notches and stuff. Just look at THAT. Put the engine at where you want base timing to be, line up the leading pickup to the reluctor, and you are done. You don't even need a timing light afterwards.

Just make sure that the rotor is pointing to the appropriate leads on the distributor cap, not that you installed the distrbutor 90 degrees out.

 

Ok so, I lined it up at tdc, lined up the notche and dimple to make sure i am not out of phase and inserted the distributor and moved the timing to about 15 to 16 deg btc and then advanced the dizzy to line up the reluctor and then adjusted the trailing to be between 5 to 10 deg btc split. In theory that should work even for some reason my dizzy gear is wrong. Correct?

 

I do it the peejay way, and I never use a timing light.

 

I'll try this today after work. It should start with 16 deg btc leading with 5 to 10 split trailing right?

 

I do 0 degrees or TDC on the 12A pulley leading timing mark which is at 0. I'm not sure where you're getting this 16 degree idea from.

 

So set it at 0 and then when it starts go to 6k and set it to about 24btdc leading and 5btdc trailing? i am going with those numbers since thats what racing beat suggest for 12A bp.

 

Stock timing works just fine on a bridge port. Lesser ported engines like more timing but the higher VE that a bridge port can attain means higher chamber pressures so they need less timing.

0 degrees static is 20 degrees at 4000rpm with a stock distributor. I noted no real power difference between 18 and 22 degrees all-in on my car, loses power past that.

If you tried to set it at 16 degrees base, you'd have 36 degrees over 4000rpm...

 

Got it. That makes sense. Thanks for all the help. I'll try it in a few minutes and report back. Wish me luck.