Cascade Crew

nonsensekid20 · Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 1:14 pm Post subject: Timing

For a carbed car, what should my timing be set at? and I don't remember, do I unhook the vacuum advance to set timing?

fiveoformula · Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 4:29 pm Post subject:

Depends on a lot of things.. definetly want to unhook and plug your vacuum advance. Is it basically stock? Heads, cam?

aaron_sK · Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 7:58 pm Post subject:

There is not a timing "setting" on a carb car like with EFI. It is part of the overall tune.

You need to find what the engine wants and curve the distributor to that. Then you need to dial the vacuum pod in. It is a lot of work. There is as much effort (and payoff in increased performance) as tuning a carb IMHO.

Edit: FWIW (and to the best of my recollection) the Monterey ran 22* initial, 12* in the mechanical and around 12* vacuum. The S10 ran 14* initial, around 14* mechanical and too much in the pod. Laughing

nonsensekid20 · Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 8:41 pm Post subject:

I timed it at 8 degrees. and which side am I plugging? The vacuum port right? Mild cam. Iron heads. 670cfm carb. When I went to time it today I couldn't even see the line on the harmonic balancer. But currently set at 8* without vacuum advance.

fiveoformula · Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 8:54 pm Post subject:

Plug the vacuum line so you don't have a vacuum leak there.

nonsensekid20 · Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 9:17 pm Post subject:

Makes sense. haha. I was reading somewhere that theres a timing light with a dial on it to make up for mechanical advance, so say you set the dial to 36, you would move your dizzy so it lined up to 0 to have total 36* timing. But I only have the normal light, so how would I make up for mechanical? StreetFire HEI dizzy btw.

aaron_sK · Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 9:27 pm Post subject:

Timing tape.

Or measure and paint the balancer.

The street fire should be pretty easy to curve and should have come with the kit full of springs and weights and whatnot.

I had the bad luck of my last two carbed vehicles having bastard-child distributors! Fun grinding weights and bending tabs to fit HEI springs. Laughing

Alphius · Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 9:45 pm Post subject:

Fuel injection for the win. I'd much rather adjust a timing table on a laptop than recurve a distributor anytime soon. Laughing

nonsensekid20 · Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 3:08 pm Post subject:

And here I thought carbs were supposed to be simple... Is there an EASY way to time it? Laughing

Twilightoptics · Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 3:42 pm Post subject:

nonsensekid20 · Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 4:17 pm Post subject:

This may be a stupid question, but if I put the timing tape on there, how do I see where on the tape it's timed at? All I have right now is the little metal thing that bolts above the harmonic balancer with notches and numbers.

Twilightoptics · Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 5:07 pm Post subject:

You find ZERO on the timing pointer. Mark it with a paint pen.

Find the Notch on the balancer and setup ZERO on the timing tape. Wrap the tape. Paint mark the total timing you want. Adjust timing, vacuum advance unplugged, until the timing pointer mark and the timing tape mark align.

Make sure you wrap the timing tape the correct direction. IIRC you wrap it numbers increasing clockwise.

aaron_sK · Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 7:31 pm Post subject: