D-361 timing marks

I am curious if anyone else has found the timing marks on a D-361 engine flywheel to be off by approx 10 degrees. I found this out when measuring piston protrusion above the deck. I had made a seperate pointer on front pulley before splitting tractor because it is hard to be real sure of the flywheel pointer as it is in the cluch housing after you split. When I turned engine to tdc mark piston was no all the way up, so I made my own tdc mark by the normal method of dialing up to stop, down .001 and back other way to down again .001 and then split the difference for true tdc. This of course means the timing at the pump is way off, almost 10 degrees early. Hard starting is the problem I am checking on, but owner claims it used to start fine. Hard to believe. History of engine it knocked rod out many years ago, reground crank, large end of rods have been machined once for sure and I think twice that is why I was checking piston protrusion. That is another story, but I was just curious if anyone has ever seen timing marks that far off and a possible explanation except flywheel marked wrong or dowels in crank wrong.

Ya know Pete i have never paid that much attention to that over the years as when i do a 361 i always pull them and do a total rebuild and use the .010 sleves to make sure that the core shift is out of the block as i have them line bored and then set up off the centerline for the boring and a light dusting of the deck and a light cut on the contour bores and have always set TDC off the timing marks and i guess i have always assumed that they were correct and it is set at what i have always believe to be TDC . then put the ft. cover on then the pump after i have it setting in the chassie . I know way back when Ford was still using the FE block 360 in the pickups that the ft. harmonic Balancers on the 70-71's were way off and trying to get one to run at 5 degrees BTDC was a real treat as it was off by 15 and if you set them at 20 they ran great . So now i will have to check real close on the next one and see .Thanks for the heads up .

Vet. I am too old for these problems. I keep saying this is the last one, major jobs that is. Think I mean it this time. Doing a complete rebuild is not an option on this rig. Injection pump was rebuilt last year also. It has too much primary pump pressure, automatic advance moves at cranking speed, reaches full advance at way too low rpm. I didn't want to break the pump shop seals but I guess I will if I get it back together again. I talked to the guy who did the work on pump, he say, that won't make any difference. Ya, right. I used to repair these pumps all the time. Head was rebuilt last year, exhaust valves are not up to protrusion specs either, so it is going back to machine shop. Conecting rods are going to the machinist I use to have center to center length checked and adjusted as necessary to get full piston protrusion. Like has been said by me and many others including you, really good engine but a nightmare to overhaul.

YEp that they are and if ya don't check the sleeves with a bore gauge after they are presse in and run a rigid hone donw them and hand fit each piston they will come unglued before they hit fifty hours . and some times even sooner . One guy did not like my price on a rebuild and said he could do it him self , well after trashing out now get this FIVE blocks and never got more then twenty hours on any of them here he comes with his tail between his legs with a new block and a truck load of pieces and parts and said here you do it i give up . So off to the machine shop that i used and my buddy and i started on it with a line bore then centerline boring of the hole to take the .010 oversized sleeves and took of a whisker off the deck and redid the contour bores and pressed in the sleeves and checked them and honed to fit each piston then installing new valve seats and the pump went to Harry as he is the only one i use on pumps as he is super on the RD's . Well that was twenty years ago and as of a year ago it was still running and as the owner tells me the best starting tractor he has. They got to be wright and when they are they will start to 0 with out anything but two good batterys .