Ported or Manifold Distributor Vacuum?
Le Mans Master
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 7,423
Likes: 1,458
From: Little Rock AR
Thanks for your feedback, I can only post what my Timing Light & rpm are showing me. Again my Actron dialback timing light isn't anything fancy.
*for giggles I hooked-up my old analog Dwell/Tachometer meter to the engine (it only swings to 2000 rpm) and the meter was giving a lower reading vs the vehicles tach.
(possible timing light, tachometer or harmonic balancer being off?)
*Unless you're referring to as in 'testing'-(which I did not do) or locking-out the mechanical advance for a race engine; I have never heard of disabling the mechanical advance from advancing.
*for giggles I hooked-up my old analog Dwell/Tachometer meter to the engine (it only swings to 2000 rpm) and the meter was giving a lower reading vs the vehicles tach.
(possible timing light, tachometer or harmonic balancer being off?)
*Unless you're referring to as in 'testing'-(which I did not do) or locking-out the mechanical advance for a race engine; I have never heard of disabling the mechanical advance from advancing.
I would set the timing with the vac advance plugged and the engine revved up high enough to where the centrifugal timing stops advancing and lock the distributor down at 36 degrees right there. Then let RPM come back down to idle and verify the centrifugal advance is fully backed off at idle. If the centrifugal is all out like it should be, this is your initial timing set point. You need to modify the centrifugal mechanism if you want a different initial timing setting. Reconnect the Vacuum advance. Seems backward from the typical way you have always done before but it is a better way to do it. This is just part of recurving a distributor at home.
