Timing Woes.

[zCLR]

That is not TDC, which would be the middle mark. The other marks either side of that are for ignition advance/retard timing, using a timing light on a running engine. Mechanical timing should all be at TDC, no advance/retard.

Ok so back to beginnings before I try to blame other things, I'm confused about TDC then. He's what it looks like on my timing cover. Am I wrong to think the "T" is TDC?

[85Ram50]

Ok so back to beginnings before I try to blame other things, I'm confused about TDC then. He's what it looks like on my timing cover. Am I wrong to think the "T" is TDC?

If that is your timing cover then you are correct. I am baffled. I have never seen a timing cover with only BTDC markings. Good then your cam & TDC is right. How sure are you that it is on compression stroke? It will also align 180 out of compression. I think its called exhaust stroke.
As for your distributor I meant for you to take it all the way out and pay attention to how much the rotor rotates by putting it in and out a few times to get a feel for it.
On mine there is a tiny bump or a braille bump on the bottom of the gear. That is the gear that should line up with the mark on the shaft. What I did was rotate the gear away from the mark on the shaft so that it would be on that mark once it was fully seated in its position. Before I did this I was stuck with the dist rotated fully one way so it would run too. The rotor was off of #1 anti clockwise a bit before I did that.

[geezer101]

If that is your timing cover then you are correct. I am baffled. I have never seen a timing cover with only BTDC markings...

The BTDC and ATDC timing marks were only on pre-EFI engines. Under normal circumstances you would never need to time an ignition tune in @ 0 TDC or ATDC so they omitted it.