Re: Commander 302 firing order
You can find a socket that fits the head of the bolt holding the harmonic balancer on. Attach a ratchet to that socket, and spin the engine over in a clockwise direction. Cylinder 1 is on the starboard side for a Ford. Place your finger over the hole, and feel for air pushing out when spinning. Line up the 0? mark on your balancer with the timing pointer (or the mark on your pointer with the notch on the balancer). This should be #1 TDC on the compression stroke. If you want to be extra sure you are getting the compression stroke, you can pull the valve cover off for the starboard bank of cylinders. Spin the engine over, and watch #1 intake valve open and close. When it closes, line up the timing marks to 0?. Ford had 2 different firing orders for the 302. Your intake manifold may actually have the firing order cast into is, but if not it's either 1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8 (the 351 style firing order like Capt Ken mentioned) or 1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8 Which is the older 289/302/FE/385 firing order. Also keep in mind how Ford numbers the cylinders 1234 (right) 5678 (left).
