Reply With Quotei ran mine at 38 total or 38btdc.36 is good also depends on your motor set up.I reved mine up to 3500 and took reading to set.
I am still learing all there is to know about jets, I need to knowhow to set the timing on a 460 ford with no vac adcance, my dwell I know how to set and is right, now everyone tells me set it to 36 degrees total timing.
Ok here is the problem, when I point the timing light at the indicator I understand 0 degrees top dead center and one way is advance and the other is retard timing. My lines on the harmonic balancer do not read as high as 36 degrees?
Or maybe I am not reading it right?
Someone Help me learn PLEASE!
i ran mine at 38 total or 38btdc.36 is good also depends on your motor set up.I reved mine up to 3500 and took reading to set.
I see what you're saying. Your harmonic balance is only marked to 30 degrees, so how do you know when it's set it to 36?
I set my static timing to 10 degrees before top dead center. It starts and runs best there for sure. My distributor has 25 degrees of advance so I end up around 35 or 36 total timing.
To check your total timing you could get one of the tapes for your balance which will be marked further around (but they have a tendancy to fall off). Or get a timing light that allows you to dial out your static timing.
Personally, I just kinda measure and mark the balancer to where the next set of marks would be, if it were degreed to 40 and sorta fudge it.
Probably not the best way, but it works for me. Been doing it for years and haven't blown one up yet.
[ April 23, 2003, 09:16 PM: Message edited by: Squirtcha? ]
wet77:
Ok here is the problem, when I point the timing light at the indicator I understand 0 degrees top dead center and one way is advance and the other is retard timing. My lines on the harmonic balancer do not read as high as 36 degrees?
Or maybe I am not reading it right?
Someone Help me learn PLEASE! Not sure if your talking about the timing tab or do you have tape on the balancer? You need to know how much advance is in the distributor first then set you initial to get you 36 deg total all in before 3000 rpm. I would also recomend getting rid of the vacume advance and going mechanical if you can. What kinda compression are you running in that motor?
you need an adjustable timing light, set the timing light to 36 deg and then adjust your timing straight up at zero, the light will add in the 36 deg of timing.
I agree with 21foot eagle. My timing light is adjustable for up to 40 degrees in either direction. All you need is a marker on the harmonic balancer that identifies tdc and the pointer attached to the engine. adjust your light for 36 degrees and rev it up. Although I think 10 btdc is where you want to be at idle. If starts to clatter back off the timing. I would recommend you do it on the water where you can put the engine under a load and see what happens. It will have a tendancy to clatter more when loaded than sitting in the driveway on the trailer. You could set it in the driveway just make sure to take a wrench and timing light with you first time out.I wouldn't trust the tape to be as accurate as the light. Good luck......
You don't have to step up and buy an adjustable light. Take a piece of wire or string, wrap it carefully around the balancer, keeping as straight as possible. Mark it carefully, remove it, measure the length, divide by 10. As an example, if you measure 25 inches, divide by 10 gives 2 1/2 inches. Measure from the "0", make a mark with something that contrasts the color of the balancer, like white correction fluid on black, and you have your 36 degree mark, since 360 degrees divided by 10 gives 36 degrees. Adjustable timing light is great, but you don't have to have one to get it right. Bring the rpm up as previously described to make sure the distributor is fully advanced, lock it down, and check it again to make sure the distributor did not move.
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