If you are assembling an engine, How do time the cam to the crank without degreeing or anything. Me and my father, had disassembled his 350 and stupidly didnt record any data, so now we tried adjusting valves and are not building compression. I have no idea where to start. Any help?  

Back inside the time case on the front of the engine is the timing gears and chain. Assuming this is a stock rebuild not using any fancy gears with several slots for different key or dowel positions proceed as follows.

Slip the crankshaft gear onto the crank and index it to the keyway with the key. The gear is placed so that the timing mark is facing toward you. The mark will be an etched line or a punch mark that can be a circle or triangle. Rotate the crank so that mark is pointing straight up.

Take the cam gear and position it so the timing mark on it is pointing toward you. The gear will have 3 bolt holes and a smaller dowel hole. Place it on the cam so the dowel in the cam passes through the gear, then install the 3 bolts tight enough to where the gear doesn't wobble. Rotate the cam gear till the timing mark faces that of the crank gear.

The cam is now positioned to be in time with the crank. Remove the gears without disturbing the positions of the crank or the cam.

Drape the chain over the gears and return them to alignment. Slip the crank gear onto the crankshaft and slide the entire gears and chain assembly toward the cam. The cam gear should engage the dowel and the bolts now with the 3 bend over tab retainer attached are slipped into their holes and finger tightened.

Check the position of the timing marks; they should still be pointing directly at each other with the crank gear's facing up while the cam gear's faces down. The engine is now ready to fire number 6. You can leave it that way or roll the crank around till both timing marks are pointing up, then the distributor drops in ready to fire number one.

Once the lifters, pushrods, and rockers are in place you can adjust the "lash". I have two old habits frowned upon by modern builders. The first is I pump up the lifters before installation by putting each in a container of oil and taking a push rod, pump the plunger up and down till no more bubbles escape it. Once the engine is together to the point that the rockers can be adjusted, I bring number one up to firing position (both valves closed piston at TDC. Then I run the nut down to zero lash as determined by spinning each pushrod with my fingers and feeling for resistance. At the resistance point I take another 1/2 turn and lock the nut. If the plunger sinks beyond .050 inch without the resistance to spinning the push rod increasing, the lifter is no good and must be replaced.

There are various schemes of engine rotation ostensibly to reduce the number of times you need to rotate the engine (by hand I might add)I don't trust them so I go down the firing order on cylinder at a time brining each to TDC firing in turn and adjusting the lifters.  

Bogie