Ok me and my buddy rebuilt a 1971 chevy c10 350 and dropped it in his 73 el camino. The problem is that the engine doesnt have any timing marks on it, and i dont know how to get it timed again. Does anybody have any suggestions?

The car should have a plate that is over the harmonic balancer on the drivers side, that kind of looks like pair of W'* put together. On the harmonic balancer there is a groove. Might take some cleaning to see it, but they all have it. You wan to set it like 6-10 degrees Before TDC. Depends on the compression of the one you have. They vary alot year to year, model to model.

Some times these are hard to see. Clean up the HB with a wire brush, then fill the groove with something like white out. This will make it easy to see. Do you have a timing light?

I used to use a tire crayon. That worked pretty well too.

I can see the groove on the balancer but there is no timing pointer.

It'* possible it fell off or was removed. Can you see where it was attached? I've worked on some old engines that I had a real hard time seeing that plate. You need to get your head in the right place. I want to say it'* at about the 1 O clock position on the drivers side of the engine.

No it was replaced with an aftermarket chrome piece by the previous owner. I have to get this thing started by sunday in order for my buddy to be able to sell it.

Make sure the number one cylinder is at TDC and verify the groove on the balancer hit the 0 mark on the "pointer" . With a decent battery cranking the engine slowly turn the distrubutor back and forth. If all else is well, it should fire. If not, something besides the timing is also bad. If it runs,let it warm up, bring the timing to 6 degrees BTDC and feather it back towards 10 (helps to have distributor nut down enough the just be able to turn it) and see if it gets any smoother. If not tighten it down @ 6 and do some WOT'* and listen for a knock..

Crank the engine so #1 cylinder is on the compression stroke. then HAND CRANK the engine till you feel like it as close to TDC as possible. Next note where #1 ign wire post is on the dist. Note where the rotor in the dist is pointed. If the rotor is off pull out the dist and adjust till it is as close to #1 ign wire post as you can. This should at least get it running.