I've put a few engines in and a few dizzys but I have always had some concern about the timing of the engine and it not being right. I know how to get inital timing at idle, but how do you check to see what the total timing is? There is initial and total right? Do I check that with a timing light above 3000RPMS? Also, comp cams told me to start with 12 degrees of inital timing with my setup. now there isnt a way to change the total timing without changing the inital timing right? What would my total timing be at with 12 degrees of inital timing? my cam specs are 224/230 .503/.510 112. this is in a 10:1 383 with 190 AFR heads. DOes that timing setting sound right? It seems a little high to me?

 

You've got a computer controlling your timing, so just set the intial and be done with it.

 

With an old large cap, non computer controlled distributor, you adjusted mechanical advance with cams and weights inside the distributor. The springs controlled how quickly advance came in. With a computer controlled distributor, there is nothing inside it to modify. You set the base timing as per the manual instructions and that's all you can do. If you bump base timing from 8 to 12* then total timing will also be bumped up 4* since total advance is based off the initial timing and the computer assumes it's set correctly.

If total timing is too high and causes pinging, the computer will detect spark knock and retard the timing to prevent damage but that will also decrease performance.

 

Steve, thanks for the info. I owe you a beer