uniflight 72
New member
I have a 1972 twin Uniflight 318 engines. The left engine times at 5 before tdc. On the right engine, I can't get it to time right. I tried to time to the #1 cyl on the left front of block like the book says,and the timing mark is straight up, so i tried to time from the fly wheel. when starting the motor bucks on two turns, then starts. i hear a noise it the front (metal tingling) i retard the timing the timing untill it is almost gone, then if i run for any lenght of time, then idle to say go into my slip, it stops and wont start! When I rotated the dist. cap to get it to run anyway near smoth the the dist. cap was turned so much that the #2(right side front of motor was where the thr rotor was pointing to #1 side. I talked to area mechanics and some said that some of the right turning engines might have #1 cyl on right side front. So I tried to time it that way. I found tdc for the #2 cyl and it matched up with the front timing plate on the right side of balancer. When I started it up the timing mark was about an inch after the timing mark, and still would turn(buck) twice befor start running. I had the owner of the marina come down and look at it. He said lets startfrom scratch and not look at the book, as this it the clockwise running engine. I started it and t engine seamed to be running smooth. he then pulled off one plug wire off of the dist at a time. It never wavered one bit as he cept pulling off all the wires but two!! the engine was still running smooth. He the started to put back the wires one at a time to where the motors idle went up. he did that to each plug until all wires were back on. I shut the motor off then started it up. Is ran like a new motor. I could't belive it. He the told me to contact you guys to find out what is the corect fireing order is. We traced out the wires (still using #2 for tdc) and came out with firing order as #1,3,5,7 cyl on right side of block, and #2,4,6,8 on left side. It came out to read 1 2 6 5 2 4 3 7.. Do I have to pull off the intake manifold to get the true firing order by watching the valves??? I am at a lost at what to do. any help would make my day, thanks, john.