1984 12a timing

[merkrotary]

I got 1984 GS RX 7 12a, the car when I got it was in very good shape, new belts, tires, brakes, the motor leaked antifreeze out of the tail pipe, I replaced the motor and installed a distributer like it was in the old motor, could not even see the time marks, but it did run and ran fairly decent, I then took it down and smogged it, and because it was so far out of time, it wouldnt pass smog, that and slightly to much HC, took it home and timed it to factory specs, drove it to warm it up, it pingged like pre-detination and fell down pretty bad, the HC's were ten times greater, I took it home and retarded the timing to 40 50 60 degrees, not sure how to really measure that but, but it runs really great now, pulls hard and doesnt ping or miss a beat, put new spark plugs and new spark plugs wires and thinking about a new distributor, if its factory specs it doesnt run very good, any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated, I feel like I am doing something wrong.

Merkrotary

[t_g_farrell]

Sounds like the front pulley was put on 90 or 180 degrees out of alignment. Considering you
swapped in an engine I could see this being very likely. On some year 12As it is very easy
to mount the front pulley (the one with the timing marks) randomly. To make it sure its right
find TDC using the flywheel or sparkplug method and then see if your pulley is correct. If
not just undo the 4 small 10mm bolts holding it on and turn it until it shows TDC as well.

[merkrotary]

thank you sir
Never thought of that going to try first thing in the morning thank you very much
Merkrotary