hey guys ,
Ive never tried working on my truck before other than alternator or simple stuff on other cars so needless to say I am very confused at how to find top dead center . Im using a haynes manual to figure out how to put a new head gasket on since I blew it while driving it hot. I have gotten the air cleaning housing off and the next step is to set the number one piston to top dead center. i havent dont it yet but reading thru it seems some what understandable . except for that i couldnt see any marks on the crankcase again I havnt started turning it because i dont have the right tools yet ,but when I do start what kind of marks will they be just little cuts in the metal or is it the arrows that corrilate with the one two three and four stamped on the crackcase pully.
also do I need to find TDC for all of the pistons or just the number one piston as the book goes on to explain that tdc can be found for the rest of the pistons by doing the same thing as stated above.
well anyhelp would be appreciated and any advice on problems I might run into would be very much appreciated

The cylinders are 1, 2, 3, 4 from front of engine to rear. Follow each wire to the distributor cap and mark the position or wire with the number (don't remove the wires). Take off the distributor cap, again marking the locations underneath each wire with its number. Rotate the engine with a wrench on the pulley nut. When the distributor rotor is underneath the position for #1 wire, then #1 cylinder is at top dead center. There should also be alignment mark on the pulley, but if use that only and don't look at the rotor position you could be 180 degrees off. If you need to do similar for the others, the same practice.

thanks cusser,
I went out today and messed around with it , I couldnt find any marks on the crankcase pulley other than the one two three and four stamped on the pulley with an arrow above each number. so I am assumming these are the marks I am looking for . I spun the pulley like you said and yes the rotar did end up at #1 position the problem is that the rotor always ends up on the #1 position . everytime i turn the pulley to the 1 with arrow and look at the distributar rotar it is in the correct position and never 180 degrees off. so I am writting to make sure I am using the corrct marks and to see what you guys think.

The firing order for this is 1-3-4-2. As you turn the engine over clockwise the rotor should move to the different positions, each 90 degrees forward of the previous. When the rotor is under #1, then #1 is top dead center. Usually this is done as a reference point to make it easier to replace stuff when stuff like cylinder heads, timing belts, and distributors are removed.

thanks again cusser,
I did find tdc most of the problem was I had my terminology confused when the book said pulley i was looking at the sprocket I finally found the pully and the mark and got #1 to tdc . I have another question the book said to line up on the O or T or pointer marker I found the T and lined up and rotor was pointed to one . THEre was also a 10 marker close to the T marker do you have any clue to what that was?

Sounds like a 10 degee ignition timing mark

There are some timing details on Mazdatruckin.com, just go to the B2200 section.

I went throught the process of having the Cyl Head reworked and had to take the camshaft sproket off. Of course I forgot to check which way the cam TDC was. When installing, I was told that the #1 lobes of the cam should be pointing up and the #4 lobes pointing down. When I do this the Pin in the front of the Cam points down and then the sproket #1 mark also points down. I always thought that the marker (pin) on the cam should point up as the crankshaft marker points up. Can someone tell me which way the cam pin should point and which way the number one and number four lobes of the cam are suppose to point to indicate camshaft TDC

Thanks,
Jake Cutter