I have gotten a lot of very useful information from this site, however everyone needs to take what they read with a grain of salt. I have been a Chrysler guy all my life and that's why I got on here when I purchased my 442. everything that I have seen on here and in other literature says that distributor rotation is clockwise on a 455. now mine is a 75 model but rotation is definitely counterclockwise!

 

All Olds motors to at least 1964 are counterclockwise (260, 307, 330, 350, 400, 425, 455).

Others better versed in the older models can comment on the 394, etc. - I'm not familiar with those.

Incidentally, where did you read that it was clockwise? Everything I've seen on line correctly says that it is counterclockwise.

- Eric

 

I don't remember, its been some time back. My Chilton's even says in print that rotation is clockwise, but the illustrations show timing to be counterclockwise! Lol seriously, a Chilton's on cutlass!

 

I just looked in my 1975 Chiltons and it shows Counter clockwise.
The only thing I see clockwise is a pic of a 1975 Omaga engine that has the dist in the front so that must be a Buick engine pic.

 

All early Olds v8's are also counter clock wise,303 ,324, 371 and 394.....Tedd

 

The crankshaft rotates clockwise when viewed from the front but the distributor rotor turns counter-clockwise.
If I'm not mistaken most all American V8 crankshafts rotate clockwise when viewed from the front. Firing orders are different but rotation remains constant.

 

Most engines that I know of period rotate that way Trip. The exception would be most Hondas, save the last few years.

 

Interestingly, those Hondas are mounted "backwards" in the car. Nearly all transverse FWD cars have the "front" of the engine on the passenger side and the flywheel on the driver's side. Until recently, Honda's were the other way around, with the flywheel on the passenger side.

 

I have seen a couple of sites that state distributor rotation on Oldsmobile V8's is Clockwise. That's wrong. I just set the initial timing on my 68-455 tonight. I observed the rotor rotating Counter Clockwise as the engine cranked. Firing orders are still GM standard 18436572.

 

CCW is correct.

 

Took me a night to figure that out. Had that distrubitor out and in half a dozen times. It started to fire once every revolution. Finially came to me in my sleep. Woke up THINKING THIS ISN'T A CHEVY! Went out in the morning rewired it and it fired right up.

 

Something on the interwebs is NOT true? I'm shocked, SHOCKED I tell you...

The correct information can always be found in the factory Chassis Service Manual for your car. Also it was pointed out above in post No. 2 in this thread that you resurrected from 2013.

 

I'v seen sites where they list the firing order Clockwise with the correct firing order, even though the distributor spins Counter clockwise. They use 1 as a point of reference and wire clockwise 1-2-7-5-6-3-4-8.

 

OW! That hurt my brain.

- Eric

 

LOL
plug wiring for Chevy Mechanics!
That's funny as hell.

PS the Olds V8 distributor DOES turn CCW
So does the crankshaft

if you look at it from the OTHER END.

Every shaft turns CW if you look at the one end and CCW if you look at the other end. Duh.

PS for any engine, ANY ENGINE, with vacuum advance on the dist'r... follow the VA unit into the dist'r then around the shaft, and keep going... that is the direction that the dist'r spins. I learned that when teaching basic engine mechanics at UC Davis many years ago. Thanks, Shrini!!