92 camaro, fitech efi fuel injection system, hooker shorty headers, along with weiand street warrior intake stock cam
3 inch dynomax exhaust
just finshed my efi swap, timed it by ear originally to get running
What would be the proper timing degrees for this application? Best for power and economy? How much timing can i throw at it and not hurt my engine or ping?
no experience other than timing by ear on everything ive owned so want to make sure i dont hurt anything or do it wrong. Thanks in advance. Also hei vacuum advanced now. Not computer controlled. If im in the wrong forum please let me know so i can move the thread

 

Not knowing anything more about your engine that you posted, unhook the vacuum line at the distributor, plug the line, and set the initial timing at 6-8 degrees or so. Hook the vac advance line back up and drive the car. If it doesn't ping under acceleration, advance the timing an additional 2 degrees, and drive test again. If no ping, add more timing, 2 degrees at a time, until it does ping. At that point, back off the timing by 2 degrees (until the ping goes away), and you should be good to go.

 

FIRST you need to get a timing light. "Timing by ear" is a great way to wreck stuff.

Make sure you verify the accuracy of your light--lots of crap tools and crap parts are coming from The Land Of Bottom-Feeder Garbage. There may be noone in the supply chain that's actually making sure the product is usable. This is even more true if the timing light has a "dial-back" feature so you have an easier time looking at total advance. Use the timing light on other vehicles that run good, make sure your timing readings make sense before you use it on your hot-rod.

IF there's no computer control, you'll likely wind up with 10--16 degrees of initial timing, 30--35 degrees of total timing, and perhaps 10--15 degrees of vacuum advance. Excess initial timing is hard on the starter motor, and it's generally a cover-up for improper fueling. "Total" timing includes initial + centrifugal advance, but NOT vacuum advance. It is REAL easy to have too much vacuum advance; many original vacuum canisters have 20--25 degrees of advance travel. This can be fixed by PROPERLY limiting the amount of travel. Some aftermarket "kits" place the limiter on the wrong side of the travel (because it's easier) instead of doing it right (because you'd have to drill and tap a hole for a machine screw; or braze/weld/solder a limiter plate.)

I've been told that the "swirl-port" heads don't need or want a lot of total timing. I've owned them, but never played hot-roddy games with them. I was very pleased to scrap 'em in favor of aftermarket aluminum heads.

Your total timing will be "all-in" around 3000--3200 rpm. This somewhat depends on vehicle weight, gear ratio including trans gears, tire size, etc.

Older HEIs have problems with worn-out distributor weights, pivot pins, distributor gears, and sometimes the mechanism has not been lubed for so long that it's seized or at least stiff. Make sure yours works properly. This is ten times as true for cheap-junk "brand new" Communist Chinese "HEI" distributors. They may not be "worn out" but they can often be so screwed-up as to need real sorting out; and the ChiCom electronic modules aren't worth two squirts of duck poop.

Good luck with the T5 transmission. Expect problems if the engine has any power and you don't baby the thing.

 

Anyone who can drive worth a damn can keep a wc alive.

 

Sure...if they baby it, and/or the engine has poor power and/or hard 'n' skinny rear tires. Is that how you want to operate your 5-speed?

The alternative is to spend a small fortune in aftermarket parts to fix the inherent shortcomings of a fragile, brittle transmission.

 

Open up a nwc t5 and then open up a wc t5 which is what the op has and get back to me. I have seen them side by side, you can trust me when I say they aren't the same. I'm well aware of the limitations, and I tried to relay that information as well as some history to you the first time you told this guy his transmission was made of glass. Last time I checked, people weren't giving t56 transmissions away, and the 4th gen versions were nothing spectacular either.