okay tonight coming home from the bowling alley i took a different way home and so i could get te engine hot to see if my one problem still existed. well it kinda does still. becuz as i was coming down a back road the car started to sputter alittle an then the thing backfired and sounded like a shotgun blast. i just want to know is this a timing problem or is it something else? becuz im sick and tired of this crap. im about to spend all my money go and get an MSD ignition (cap,rotor,coil,entire distributor,etc.) and then get this done and then get some more mods that i also want done to it too.

so what do u guys think. could it be my timing that s off that gave me the backfire when the engine got hot enuff? or what?

 

i'm not real sure, but I would almost think you have a control module problem. They usually crap out mostly when they are hot. like after you driven the car around for awhile. Still has to do with the timing though. just a place to start.

 

okay thanx. do the hei vacume advansted distributors have one? im not sure becuz ive seen them on vettes and whatnot im just not sure.

 

anyone? please?

 

i'm not real sure about the vette's. They should. All car have a control module. But they are different per car.

 

well the mechanic said that it might be the pickups in the distributor. he said when they get to hot they wont catch the spark or something like that and like it wont give me the spark i need when its warm and whatnot. so he basiclly recomended that i buy a hole new distributor from bottem up.

 

what where you doing at the time that it backfired, did you get on it? Does the car give you hard starts? How does it usually run? Id check the timing first. Im obviously assuming you still have the cc carb since i saw you have a q-jet. To do this, pull out the 4 pin connector from the dist. and point a timing light at the balancer and see what its timed to. If the timing is too far retarded, it will backfire. It should be around 6 deg btdc. i i guess in extreme cases, timing too far in advance will cause backfire when hot b/c the computer will detect knock and retard the timing, i think as much as 20 deg. Ive heard of engines bogging but not backfiring when this happens. Take it from here and check all the simple stuff first before throwing parts at it.

 

Back fires of that kind are fuel detonating in the exhaust. I've seen them twice.

Once in my Bird. It was a burnt plug wire, allowing one cylinder to flood.

Once on a truck. The float in the carb was not floating anymore, flooding the engine.

I've never seen a distributer cause this, but I could see the possiblility of it.

 

i have... in my old eclipse, i was an idiot when i went to advance the timing some for more power. I dint tighten down the cap and it slipped and started backfiring.

 

if you dont have the computer, i think you just check the timing w/o unplugging anything. Ive never had the chance to actually use a vacuum advance dist. so id never know.

 

well it has no computer. also when i was coming home i was on the throttle alittle just to cruise and then it started to like stubble and then i gave more gas and then it backfired. tomarrow im hopefully goin to get it checked out or just get the timing checked on it.

whats the timing suposed to be set at idle and wot (or whatever speed )?

 

6-8 deg btdc base timing is pretty good w/ my tbi'd 350 but ive never had to time a non cc engine. You could just advance it untill you hear knock and then back it off untill the knock is no loger present during driving. That will give you the most power. From the sound that it started all of a sudden the mechanic may be right that you have a problem with the dist.

 

he also suggests that with the cost of the part i need and how much it will cost to fix the distributor i should just but an entire new distributor from botten up and get that installed. im thinkin of gettin the msd pro-buillet hei distributor. what u guys think.