timing check

I'm new to the game but when I extracted the engine recently I came upon a wire near the coils that had a tag on it. It is used for checking timing , can anyone tell me how and with what instrument? Lostbowl

 

Thanks for the no-nonsense answer! I have to inquire if you have heard/seen this senario. I recently purchased a 1982 GTSi and it ran great at speed. I could redline the engine and it sounded perfect, however, I could not get a proper idle. After checking the plugs I decided I needed to do a compression check and found one hole to register 25PSI. The other seven went a near perfect 175psi. I had records of maintainence but nothing had been done in years with only 33K on the clock so I pulled the motor and am perplexed by what I found. All the intakes were at spec .20mm clearance. Seven exhaust valves were .08-.18mm and the dead hole was a negative . Very happy to see honing marks in the cyl. so the engine is in great shape. Is this a common find? I wound think that either the correct service was never done! Do you have an opinion on this subject? Tom (another oldtimer)

 

Thanks guys, again for the advice. This forum has been the best that I have come across and the knowledge pool is fantastic. To address both replys yes my insurance man said this is the only F-car in Ontonagon (no surprise, not too many people left and we like it that way) With 300 plus inches of snow the only vehicle we use in the winter is the Tahoe and the F-car is great for our two weeks of summer--"ya you betcha". I have already pulled the motor and head and even lightly lapped the valves in the dead hole and found them to be concentric so they will go back in. I will run another comp test before putting it back in. This brings me to the next step------------I have read all the posts about valve timing and have done several other overhead cam engines, Subaru, Jags etc. but the F-car posts are all so different------- one guy says paint marks on the pulleys and belts and transferr them to the new belts and then some go to degree wheels-------- Are there not marks on the cams and crank pulleys to line up?
Has anyone used the VHT wrinkle paint on the cam covers with reasonable success? Has anyone painted or coated the exhaust header covers with anything that held up? BIG Thanks, Tom

 

Nice detail on your engine----- Has anyone used the VHT primer/wrinkle with success? We have a little problem UP here in the woods that retards me from sending parts out to be done. Example-------- I had a set of Subaru heads sent out for dye checking and hot tanking at our local Car Quest. As I have always done with Al heads I made plywood protectors that cover both sides and are through bolted together to protect them in shipping--------------------when I got them back the heads were in one box and the plywood protectors in another--------------------- my worst fear, one head was dropped and the boss for the front bearing was crushed and the Car Quest store knocked off a couple bucks----------------- american quality control at it's best!! Anyway I need to do all things in-house so they don't get screwed up. Hence, I hope the VHT stuff is good but I have never used it before. Lostbowl

 

Steve,
Thanks for the reply! Are you running without the heat shields on the headers and if so are there any problems with the heat transfer to other parts under the hood? Lostbowl