i'm just swaping mine ina 383 and aligning dots will not take place in cyl 1 TDC. just align the marks, then turn the crank to TDC, put in dist drive so its slot is parallel to camshaft centrline, then put dist in, pointing at your cyl 1, and the rest is simple.
Am I missing something here - I've fitted a lot of cams and that sounds pretty whacky to me ! I can't actually understand what it means ?
Anyway, Ornamental you are going about it the right way because you are aiming to understand what everything does and why - if you follow that philosophy you can't go far wrong.
For a basic cam install (without degree wheels and such like) you only need to understand a little bit about centerline and advance/retard so as to be happy that your "straight up" install is going to be what you want. If you got a branded cam then that's probably a given.
Beyond that, just remember that the cam sprocket goes round 180 while the crank goes round 360.
If you are changing out an old cam it's even easier as the cam and crank are already in about the right place when you take the old timing set off.
So - within those parameters - put the crank to TDC on No 1 and turn the cam so that the valves are on the overlap (both No 1 valves are rocking). Then line up the dots on the sprockets as you slip the chain and sprockets over (you need to play around a bit taking it on and off with different teeth to make sure you got it right).
And that's it (apart from putting all the other bits back on).
Then check the ignition timing and if it isn't somewhere near right straight away then it's probably 180 degrees out.
