I know that the stock setting on most of our cars is 0, but my car likes a lil more. I use to run it at 12, then tried 16, and it seems like it likes it even more. I have a hei with high power coil kit from summit(was worth the 70 bucks) and run 89 to prevent pinging. Is this to advanced, or can you keep going until it does start detonating, and back off a bit. Really woke up the bottom end of the car.Thanks yall.

 

haha yall.


Run as much timing as you can without detonation. Do you have an aftermarket cam or edelbrock carb?

Both love lots of initial timing.

 

.... if you're using your computer controlled carb, and computer controlled distributor, without either hooked up to a computer, then yes, your car will love more timing, as it's not getting any "mechanical" or vacuum advance anymore. Try 32*, the car will really wake up. Good luck starting it back up after though....

 

well, it still does have the ccc jet on it, but the distributor has been changed over to a non cc unit. Currently running the lightest advance springs and weights for more timing earlier on.

 

oh ok.
What cam? how "small"? duration at .050?

Either way, 16* is fine, just make sure with mechanical advance, you don't have too much timing. Off the top of my head, 16* base, with a semi-educated-guess of 20* mechanical =36* total, el perfecto.

I'm running 24* base to keep the car running, 227/234 cam.

 

You'd want to check the timing at hi rpm (mechanical advance) should be 34-36deg BTDC.

 

how do i check the timing when it is adanced all the way. I thought there were 3 bases of timing. Initial, advancement by wights, and advancement by vacume
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oh, i dont really know what cam is in it, when i bought the car the guy said when he had it rebuilt e put a small cam in it, so its anybodys guess, but it does perform well with the rest of the cars stock parts,

 

you are right, timing is
base
mechanical (springs and weights)
vacuum

base+mechanical is what most people refer to as "total". You want that to be ~36*. That's what you'll have when you go WOT at say 3000RPM. You can disconnect your vacuum advance (plug the line), and rev the car to 3000RPM while you hold the timing light. Use timing tape on the balancer if you need it.

Add in vacuum and having 52* timing is about ideal. This is low load cruise timing, good for fuel economy.

 

I run mine at 16* advanced with the ccc and cc distributor. I tried to set the timing with the distributor harness undone but couldn't get the car to start so I just did it by ear. The car has a very slight roughness to the idle but MAN what a difference, like a new engine.... Didn't pass the smog station test so now they say I have to re-do the timing, set the fuel/air mixture and replace the charcole canister. Ouch

 

I'm running 18 initial, 33 total with 89 octane and it runs fine without detonation. But my compression is also lower at 8.6:1. But it's still puttin out 310 RWHP @ 5500 on the dyno.

 

well my balancer only has the pointer above it that goes to 10, and past that i just eye it by the 2 degree increments, but when it gets to about 16, i cant see the line on the balancer no more. If you keep going and then the car starts to idle bad, thats to far isnt it, cuz i tinkered with it just to see and hen it gets to around 20, its starts to idle bad and the rpms start to drop.I just left it at 16 b/c that seemed like the best and i didnt want to take it to far.

 

oh, i forgot to mention that since ive put it to 16 degrees, is has a slight"miss" at idle.Could advancing the timing cause this? Im guessing that the more you advance the timing, the higher the car likes to idle to be happy.I also lowered my idle a bit cuz it seemed like when i put the car in gear it was jut to harsh feeling. and it didnt start having that little miss in it until i lowered the idle.Not really much off a miss, just noticable by the ear.