Try stamping the distributor and the block so you know where your previous timing was set at exactly. Just be sure to clean the surface on the heads good and be careful not to drop anything into the heads or down the distributor hole. It may be a good idea to stick a rag in the holes that you arent cleaning to avoid foreign material from entering.
i wouldn't even take the distributer out of the block, too much hastle. remove all the plug leads, the cap the rotor, then inside there will be two philips screws holding the bottom half of the cap on, take that off it's small enough that it's not in the way, you won't have to piss with the timing, and you won't break anything, then take all the bolts out, disconnect the coolant hoses, and lift the intake out of place, i pulled my heads off all my pullees, replaced my timing chain had my head gasgets replaced and my heads basicly remanufactured, and i didn't take my distributer shaft out
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89 fox, mostly stock, C&L 73mm MAF, bypassed coolant hoses to egr spacer, intake silencer removal, no a/c, all options but power mirrors?? blown cats, msd cap and rotor, bosch wires, autolite plugs, 5 inch auto gauge tach with recal and blue lensed shift light, PAPER FILTER I BOUGHT ONE!!!!!!! felpro gasgets on everywhere accept oil pan and a nice big classic mustang decal on my back window
When installing the lower manifold tighten the bolts in the correct sequence. Clean out the little screen in the rear of the manifold with some solvent. This is where your PCV valve mounts.
DO not overtighten the bolts. I think the spec is 19ft lbs. That is not very tight. I can exeed that with a 1/2 box end wrench with one hand. Any way I learned the hard way. I did not think it was tight enough and snapped a bolt off and had to pull the manifold back off and run for new gaskets. As said before use proper sequence and go through it a few times gradually increaseing torque. In other words dont tighten the first bolt in the sequence all the way to spec and then the next and so on. Work up to it.
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88 fox bird, 99 explorer p head enguine, intakes, 65mm tb, crower 15511, 1.7 RR, FRPP shorties. 88 GT SD comp. AOD,
SVO mustang 3.45 gear 7.5 rear disk brake axle. 98 GT front spindles and brakes 5 lug 16X8 gt rims. Explorer rear disk 31 spline 3.73 8.8 going in soon.
Advice when removing the lower intake ? 
, msd cap and rotor, bosch wires, autolite plugs, 5 inch auto gauge tach with recal and blue lensed shift light, PAPER FILTER 
