One more time for TDC

[7DCUDA383A]

I know some of y'all get tired of the same question but here is what I have , I know I have compression stroke for sure , the pic with the arrow is about where it starts to push out the finger , here is where my rotor is pointing with the mark pretty close to 0 , so I'm guessing it is 180 out , I see everyone says take it out and turn it 180 , what do you turn , the rotor or the shaft , im really confused at this moment , the vacuum canister should point to the radiator hose , right .

 

[Challenger RTA]

Ok I would stop were you are at. You need to pull the valve covers. That way you can see what the #1 valves are doing. Then you know if the distributor is 180 out. You said Jan 2025 or 2024? Then also prime the motor. The crank has to be turned for the oil passages on the driver side the again for the passenger side, in order for the oil to go through the cam.

 

[DetMatt1]

You can move the primary shaft anywhere you want the rotor to point at #1 but in this case you could lift the distributor, rotate it 180 and the rotor would then be pointing more towards the lower distributor cap clip.
You’re making it a little more complicated than it needs to be.
The main thing you need to be sure of is that the #1 piston is at tdc on the compression stroke.
I try to remember to do that before I put the heads on because you can literally watch the piston pretty much stop moving at the top of the bore before it starts it’s downward travel on the power stroke and you can also set up a dial indicator on the deck for extra confirmation that the piston has stopped moving up. At this point the lifters are also in so you can see what the position of the valves are making sure they are both closed at the top of a compression stroke. Then you check where the mark on the damper is and it should be pointing directly at the 0 on the timing cover.
Once there you can literally drop the primary shaft in oriented anywhere you want, it can be totally random, there is no wrong way.
Put your distributor in with the body oriented where you have it in your pic and wherever the rotor is pointing at that point is where #1 spark plug wire goes on the cap and string the rest of the wires in the correct order from there.

 

[Adam]

The distributor can be wired in any position, IF the engine is at TDC on the compression stroke, and you wire it in order from where the rotor is pointing, and it’s fully seated into the drive gear. However, if you want the rotor to point at a specific spot then you have to pull the dist out of the block and turn it 180. You may also have to lift and rotate the oil pump drive gear… I use a big screwdriver to rotate and a hook to lift, easy. (The rotor only fits one way). Then wire the cap in sequence… big block distributors rotate counter clockwise, so don’t forget.

This is what I do: bring the engine to 10 degrees btdc. Hook up a timing light and turn the ignition on, but do not crank! Rotate the distributor counter clockwise a little so you are sure the #1 terminal is ahead of the rotor. Then while holding the trigger on the timing light quickly turn the distributor clockwise (about an inch or less) the timing light should fire as the #1 terminal reaches the leading edge of the rotor. You can repeat this a couple times to be sure. I like to put a couple of alignment dots on the edge of the distributor and block for future reference. Tighten down the dist. This will be a good place to fire the engine for the first time.