I know nothign about setting timing other than you hookup a little gun with a blinking light that u aim at somethign near the cam pulley and u turn a bolt near the distributer to set the timing. I took it into auto tech class today, im not in it i jus thave friends in there that will help me out on my car, and said they woudl time it. Well, what is the standard or suggested timing fo rmy engine, 12*? I think that is where they put it, but they got it retarted or to oadvanced where it was freaking loping and sounded like an oldbuick or something, it was awsome, is that bad? If not I was wondering if I could set it by ear and have it lope on the street buy set at normal timing on the strip?

 

timing basics: the gun has a clip that clips onto your #1 cylinder ignition wire, whenever that cylinder fires, the gun flashes. you point the gun at the harmonic balancer which has a line on it that lines up with a number on the timing tab, the number it lines up with is your timing. a stock tpi engine is set at 6 degrees before the piston reaches the top of the compression stroke (before top dead center or BTDC), a tbi engine is at 0 degrees. advancing your timing can be beneficial in that it will make more power but if you advance it too much, you can cause serious damage because the engine will preignite - the fuel/air mix will ignite before the spark. 12 btdc is the most i'd go. you adjust timing by loosening the distributor hold down bolt and turning the distributor, either clockwise or counterclockwise, depending if you're advancing or retarding.

 

the vacuum advance should be hooked to a vacuum source that does not provide constant vacuum. It should be a ported or carb signals vacuum source.. look for a hookup somewhere before the throttle body/butterflys.

You want vacuum to be applied after the throttle is opened from idle. That way you don't have to take off the hose when checking the base or initial timing.