I have been reading about timing and I keep reading about not timing her to specs as its was tuned for lower power. With that said, what should my base timing be?

 

Base timing is irrelevant for performance (within a range), and you should be timing for total timing. As a starting point for a performance application, total timing should be 36 degrees, and this total timing should come "all-in" between 2500-3000 rpm. For complete instructions on setting up a performance timing curve, you can e-mail me for current versions of my papers on how to set timing.

Lars
V8FastCars@msn.com

 

lars, I was using the instructional sticky. PM sent

 

Don't know what a "PM" is, but if you've sent me an e-mail as requested, you should have my papers by now - just sent out the latest batches this morning.

Lars

 

private message...your box is full. I didnt get the email. i will email you again.

 

Lars doesn't even know what a PM is, man, just send an e-mail to his e-mail address! And I think you are going to find that the answer to your question is..........don't worry about the initial timing. It doesn't matter what it is. Get your hands on Lars' paper, read it about 9 times, and follow it's instructions. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.


Keep the shiny side up!
Scott

 

I sent him an email. I messed with the carb and no I have a hard cold start issue and I know I am running rich. I need to get her sorted out.

 

Lars, got the email. Thank you very much!

 

OK, cool. E-mail Lars again, and tell him your carb issues, what kind of carb it is, any info you think is relevant, and he can send you another paper which goes into tuning your carb. Good luck,


Keep the shiny side up!
Scott

 

I messed with the idle speed....it was high but my tach is not working (have the wilcox board coming in the mail) so I have no idea how high it was but I think I have her too low now. I am going to bump her up a little and set the timing. I had to replace the gaskets in the carb and I think I have the thermo choke not set back in the correct place.

 

I sent Lars another email asking for carb help. I want to get her running good tomorrow. temps are suppose to be in the 80's and I havent had the T-Tops off ...yet!

 

I just sent out all the tech request papers and info for this morning, so you should have everything requested. Let me know if you have questions or if you need assistance.
Lars

 

I need to replace my timing light (and get one that does Dewell and RPM along with timing) so I didnt mess with the timing but I did tune the carb...what a difference! Smooth idle, starts up on the first try from a cold start. I am getting 19lbs of vacuum at idle but I think I might have a leak so I am going to have to replumb the vac lines.

Took out with the T-Tops off for the first time this afternoon. She gets up and runs much better now and the brakes will lock up if needed! (Had to test them)

Lars, thank you sooo much for the tech papers. They helped a ton!!

 

Sorry, but that's nonsense. Your engine spends 98% of its time at light loads and low RPM. Your initial timing affects your idle quality and your low speed/low RPM fuel economy. Getting your WOT timing correct is certainly important (2% of the time), but to ignore the non-WOT timing is foolish.

 

If you have a vacuum gauge, that's great, everybody should have one. Here's a link that does a great job of explaining how you can use a vacuum gauge to diagnose engine problems.

http://www.secondchancegarage.com/public/186.cfm

An old rule of thumb is to get your timing set the way you want it, and then make your final tweaks to the carb. Ignition first, then carb. If you have been reading Lars' stuff, you have probably already heard that one, but it bears repeating.


Keep the shiny side up!
Scott

 

Well, OK, that is technically true, and maybe I shouldn't have been so glib about it, but here is why I say it doesn't matter: If you have the advance curve set up correctly, and the centrifugal and vacuum advance are working properly, (pulling around 20 and 16 degrees respectively) then setting the fully advanced mechanical timing optimized for performance will put your initial timing right where it should be to optimize idle quality and fuel mileage. So, it isn't that it doesn't matter, it's that you don't need to worry about it. (If everything is working properly.)


Keep the shiny side up!
Scott

 

I plan to re-work the carb after I redo the timing. My issue at teh moment was I was so rich that if I pumped the peddle once and then went around to the carb I could smell gas without opening the butterfly valve...and I was bogging down with fast hard throttle movements.

 

The butterfly valve? Are you talking about that plate that sits above the two front barrels? That should be open once the engine is warmed up. If it's not opening, it would explain a lot. When it's closed, it cuts off air, giving the engine a nice, rich a/f mixture, which is what it wants when it's cold. Once it's warmed up, it wants a much leaner mixture, so the valve opens up to let more air in. This could be a big part of your problem.


Keep the shiny side up!
Scott

 

It does open, but she would bog down bad, turned the needles in 1/4 turn each while watching the vacuum gage increase in vacuum and once it settled at 19 from 15 I could rev her a real quick and close together with no bog.

 

You're putting the cart before the horse. You don't set up some arbitrary curve (like your 20* number above) and then set your max (WOT) timing at 36, and then voila', your low RPM timing is automatically set to its optimum (and not worth worrying about). You need to find out what (advance amount) the engine wants at low RPM, and then do the simple math to see what the curve amount needs to be to get to your desired max (36* in your example). This keeps the engine happy (ie: efficient) over the whole RPM range, not just at WOT speeds over 3000 RPM.