350 and 305 timing markers

 Well, since my last post I've had the car running. Well for about 30 seconds, but it was still running. After that I didn't start it till the following day. Right after work I rushed home excited to fire it up again. when I began to turn it over it surprised me and all my neighbor's by back firing through the exhaust. Normally the only thing I would worry about is blowing out the baffles in the Flowmasters, but I live in a peaceful town house complex. Needless to say its scared my neighbor's as much as it did me. I guess it wasn't fun enough the first time, "BANG!" there it goes for a second time. With all the neighborhood looking in my garage and relived it wasn't a shot gun going off I decided to call it a night. I've spent the last week watching YouTube videos trying to find out what went wrong. Set backs like this can be so discouraging and make it hard to go back to working on it.

 I have tried 3 times resetting the distributor and was unsuccessful in Lining up the timing mark with the scale. Every time the motor was at TDC the timing mark was at 12' o'clock. Tonight I found some clarity. After searching a few forums I found a heading "Cant line up the timing mark with the scale. This wright up made me feel a lot better for two reasons. 1- I wasn't the only one to not do enough home work on small block Chevys. 2- there wasn't something wrong with  my motor. As it turn out normal timing mark for a 80's SCB is 12 o'clock. and have there timing scale at the top of the cover. the chrome cover I purchased for the motor is for a 350 so the timing marks are to the right of the cover ( when facing the motor). The 305 should in theory be ready to fire now. I'm still a little nervous to try it do to NOT pissing my neighbors off. Tomorrow ill put in the ear plugs and give it another try.