I finally got my cam broke in but my timing is showing 50 deg. advanced at 1000 rpm's. It will not idle for more than a few seconds, overheats very fast and it "spits" thru the carb when i cut it off. It is the correct size balancer and i put the pointer back in the same holes. When i try to back the timing off it dies. Could i have intalled the dist. wrong?

help please

thanks

 

crank open your throttle plates, and back off your timing.

motor specs? cam? manifold vacuum advance right now? carb?

 

gw 350 stock bottom, new al.heads, comp xe274, holley 600, aftermarket hei dist. with vac adv.

 

try using manifold vacuum advance. Set it to 12* with vacuum advance unplugged. Then hook it back up to manifold. (This'll be kinda tricky...)

you'll probably need to adjust idle speed and mixture, but mide 20* timing at idle should be plenty.

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However, I do agree, you shouldn't be having that much trouble. Probably have the dist in wrong. Pull it out, turn over to TDC at #1, and rehook it up. Took me 3 tries to get it right...

 

Thanks i will try again this weekend. It is amazing how many little things hold you up. I swapped the heads and cam in a day but the little things, broke the coolant sensor,getting the exhaust hooked back up after having to cut it, wrong plug size, etc. etc. etc. etc. can be a pain in the ****.

 

how could you be at 50 advanced and the engine still run??

Try setting the #1 piston to top dead center, taking the dizzy out and re insterting it and mark the cap when you put it on so you'll know where the #1 plug wire should go and re-wire the spark plug wires triple checking to make sure they are going to where they belong.

Sounds more like you are 310* retarded then 50* advanced....basically your dizzy is in 180* backwards.

Good Luck!!

 

What balancer are you using and where is your timing tab located? Mismatches between balancers and timing tab locations are very common.

Factory used 2 main locations since the 70s..... 12:00 straight up behind the water pump and 1:30 sticking out towards the driver's side. Balancer and timin tab must be matched to work together. "Super advanced timing" is often a sign of using a 1:30 position timing tab with a 12:00 position balancer. You'll be off by about 35-40*.

 

The tab is at the 1:30 position. Maybe the balancer is off. I didn't even think about checking that when i installed the timing chain. I'll find tdc on #1 this weekend and see where it lines up.

thanks for the replies

 

And another thing to remember is when the timing gear marks are lined up, that's TDC #6 not #1.