As far as timing goes it does not matter what way the distributor is facing (within clearance of the intake) as long as the orientation of the plug wires is correct. 

Here's what I would do:

Bring #1 to TDC on the **compression** stroke, just put your finger in the plug hole and you'll feel the pressure as the piston comes up, look at the balancer and bring it over until it shows TDC or 0.

Now, here's where it gets tricky with an unknown motor. You could have a choice of firing orders, 1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8 or 1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8 (late 302 and 351w). Look here for good illustrations https://help.summitracing.com/knowledgebase/article/HE-04936/en-us and https://help.summitracing.com/knowledgebase/article/HE-04973/en-us

What firing order are you using right now? Probably best to try whatever the other is from what you're using.

As far as plugs go it will depend on what heads you have, what plugs came out of it?
 

Question:  Was it running before you decided to "redo" his timing for him?  If so, don't change the firing order.  It sounds to me you got the distributor off a tooth if you pulled it to align the vac adv can.

Raymond_B wrote:

As far as timing goes it does not matter what way the distributor is facing (within clearance of the intake) as long as the orientation of the plug wires is correct. 

Here's what I would do:

Bring #1 to TDC on the **compression** stroke, just put your finger in the plug hole and you'll feel the pressure as the piston comes up, look at the balancer and bring it over until it shows TDC or 0.

Now, here's where it gets tricky with an unknown motor. You could have a choice of firing orders, 1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8 or 1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8 (late 302 and 351w). Look here for good illustrations https://help.summitracing.com/knowledgebase/article/HE-04936/en-us and https://help.summitracing.com/knowledgebase/article/HE-04973/en-us

What firing order are you using right now? Probably best to try whatever the other is from what you're using.

As far as plugs go it will depend on what heads you have, what plugs came out of it?
 

 
This is important Info Thank you!  I only knew about the 13726548 Firing Order, and I always understood it to be the early model Firing Order, but you're saying it's Late Model? 

My current 68 302 is 1372.....and my previous 69 was 1372....both engines were overhauled and also out to that FO.......I guess the next question is, when did they switch over from what to which and if an engine is overhauled, is it up to choice which you do?

M1Mustang69 wrote:

I also want to thank everyone for taking the time to respond and I would like to clarify I'm well aware the canister direction means nothing. I only tackled this cause it was ridiculous to face piston 5 and it hindered setting the timing.

My biggest mistake was not taking strong note on how the timing was set as it was ----- to answer questions the car ran and drove just fine, lacking spunk but it was smooth and drivable.

No problem at all, your camshaft will dictate firing order. I *think* Ford changed the 302 firing order around 1982 when the HO motor came out, but the smart guys here will be able to validate that. Again though, that's just stock stuff.
 

If it ran fine, but seemed to lack performance the timing may well have been fine, but the timing curve may have been super lazy (the way Ford loved to calibrate the distributors from the factory for some reason).  Once you get base timing set you can look at the mechanical curve.  I like to have all timing in by 3,000RPM, and would look for 32-42 degrees of total timing, depending on how high performance the engine is.  The lower performance it is the more timing you typically need, because the heads are less efficient and require more spark lead to fully burn the air/fuel charge. 

Under the breaker plate you can see the mechanical system.  I would install the lightest springs possible from one of the common recurve kits available.  Also look at which slot the arm is in.  They are stamped with a number like "9" or "13".  Double that number is the max mechanical advance possible, so 18 and 26 respectively for that previous example.  You can put the arm in the other slot but you have to pull and disassemble the distributor a bit to do it.  Once you know how much mechanical advance it can generate just set the base timing to get you to the total timing you want (i.e. 26 degrees mechanical and you want 38 total, set base timing to 12 degrees). 

If you have to pull the distributor, mark its current location on the distributor body and the intake, then pull it up and mark again where it rotated to.  This way, when you reinstall it start at the second mark and it should naturally fall back to where it was supposed to be (the first mark).

BobE wrote:

Some items I’ll add to the previous posts.
Once TDC is known, I like to adjust the timing marks to 10 degrees BTDC.  This way when indexing the distributor to #1 spark plug, even if I’m off a bit the engine will fire up.
When re-installing the distributor, aligning the oil pump drive is usually the tricky part.  I turn the engine either by hand (on the crank bolt), or via the starter, while keeping slight down pressure on the distributor.  The distributor usually will drop into place within a ¼ turn of the crankshaft.    

Certainly sounds a lot easier than a 5/16" deep socket on a long 1/4" extension through the distributor hole until you just happen to stumble on getting it right.  Thanks for the tip!
 

I thought it was only me that was having the difficulty with the oil pump driveshaft alignment when installing the distributor.  On my 302, I can only rotate the crankshaft when lying underneath it reaching up.  I don't have access from above.  So I'm stuck with the long 1/4" extensions taped together used to tweak the position of the oil pump driveshaft. I wondered why they don't taper the top of that shaft some to make this easier.

Rufus68 wrote:

I thought it was only me that was having the difficulty with the oil pump driveshaft alignment when installing the distributor.  On my 302, I can only rotate the crankshaft when lying underneath it reaching up.  I don't have access from above.  So I'm stuck with the long 1/4" extensions taped together used to tweak the position of the oil pump driveshaft. I wondered why they don't taper the top of that shaft some to make this easier.

I stated in my post, I've also bumped the starter, but didn't mention how.  I used a push-button switch on the starter solenoid (or a screwdriver) from the battery post on the solenoid to the "S" terminal. 
The push-button method offers greater control. 
 

M1Mustang69 wrote:

I want to take a moment to thank everyone for their insight and time to help.....I applied multiple strategies like 10deg BTDC and the crank-turning with dizzy down pressure to drop it in.

In the end the Winner was the fricken timing order.....my mistake for not checking more references online (and I defaulted to the 69 351W I had for more years than my 68 302).

the correct FO was 1542...

Silly mistake, got it fired up, running and driving after 2 tries.

a couple plug wires wrong can cause some problems and running issue.   Done that a few times myself.