Tool has not arrived yet. Still waiting. Hopefully they call this morning

 

Thanks for the video. HEI distributor will not work on this car. Others maybe, but not this one. Mounts are fine, and wouldnt make a difference anyway since the motor wouldn't fall back, it would drop lower which would make it miss the washer motor on top of the wiper motor. The manual transmission mounts cannot allow the motor to fall back, unless you remove the transmission. As far as the air cleaner, I think the new Holley quick fuel double pumper is lower than a quad so thats why it hits the top of the HEI as well. Ive seen many HEI in C3s at the car shows and they fit, but are real close to the wiper motor and air cleaner. Most said the had to modify or get a new air cleaner that stands higher up. Also the wiper motor is not the same across the board on these. I looked for a new one to see if mine was and add on and its not but there were several different models of varying sizes and motor positions. If I remove the cover off the wiper washer assembly it barely fits but I had to buy extra long wires so I could turn all the cap wires to the passenger side and run them past the front of the distributor under the air cleaner to the drivers side. The fire wall side of the HEI is so close to the wiper motor it would not let me turn the wires toward the drivers side without contacting all the crap the wiper washer motor has. So alll the wires goto the passenger side then turn back in front to the drivers side ones. I did notice most guys remove the wiper washer entirely and put an electric one else were, and that opens it up enough to fit on the fire wall side. Anyway, there not all the same, and it will not fit my car without modifications I dont want to do. I think this distributor is better anyway. And another guy said if i need vacuum adjustment I can get a replacment vacuum pot thats adjustable for cheap. So not worried, I got a good high power coil and it works good. Just need to find out why its not timing right. Like others say I think the dampener is wrong so Im waiting on that tool to get a new line on there to line up correctly. Thanks again

 

As others have mentioned, the timing should be set with the vac advance disconnected and vac line plugged... rev engine to 3000rpm and adjust to 36 degrees then reconnect vac advance. you want the adjustable vac advance can to be adjusted to add about 12-14 more degrees... on an accel vac can this is like 4 turns-4.5 turns according to instructions. It sounds like you vac can is non adjustable though.
If this makes it run terrible something is wrong. maybe your balancer has slipped or the wrong timing chain cover /mark is being used as there are multiple versions for sbc or maybe you have a vacuum leak.
I removed my points distributor and installed a hei when Ibought my car..ive had multiple carbs and types of air cleaners and while the air cleaner contacts one of the boots it all fits fine..GM installed an hei on this same car with the same components starting in 75 so..

 

Ok, bad news, or maybe good. But I think bad. lol. Picked up the stop tool. Did procedure and the timing mark on the dampener is correct and lines up perfectly with 0 on the indicator tab. Also, 3000 miles ago I put in new plugs. When I took them out to do this they had tons of carbon on them, only 2 had good looking color and low carbon, #1 and #5 the two closest to the radiator. THe other 6 actually had chunks of carbon I could chip off. So its been running wrong or cold or both. I have a 180 thermostat in there, but recently put that in , it had a 160 in there. What now. Seems the timing is retarded to 7ish and its building carbon. Pinging. Thinking maybe the motor is toast. IDK, not sure what to do, thinking take a few more degrees off see if I can make it stop pinging. But that will make it run colder, more carbon. Another thing I noticed picking up the tool is that I'm getting a bit better mileage with it retarded to were it is. Usually get about 65 miles on the first quarter tank from full, today it was 78, which is a good improvement. Any suggestions before I toss all the cleaned up plugs back in. I'll check the gap too, maybe its too wide causing the cold burn. Could have been caused by the old distributor, this new one has only been in for about a week. Not much mileage on it yet. I'm also going to put the loosest springs in there, should run a bit hotter there too. Suggestions?

 

sounds like oil fouling to me.

 

Mines a 73 so may be different. It definitely does not fit well. It would work but touches everything.

 

It could be, it was burning oil when I got it. I put positive valve seals on it and added some seal repair stuff to the oil. It doesn't burn much now but it was and I can see some blue occasionally while idling when its hot. Maybe I should leave it were it is and drive it for a bit with the cleaned plugs. I read that the carbon itself causes pinging if it builds up enough to change compression. I may have already fixed everything and just need to burn off some carbon. I'm thinking its time for a new motor though. Bet its just tired. How far retarded can I put this. Might try the total timing thing to see what happens, but that may make it hard to start again. Maybe Ill try the lighter springs and total timing it. See what happens

 

What should I re gap the plugs too? Should I tighten it up or open it up a bit to get more heat?

 

oil fouled plugs is what you hear, feel.
new hotter range plugs and it will run good until plugs foul.
don't expect plugs to clean themselves.
they will clear some from highspeed but foul quicker.
so, find a hot plug that don't foul or fix the oil prob

 

Nothing meant to disparage you, RubyRed: it sounds like you have some basic knowledge of timing but also a fair bit of inexperience.

This is shooting in the dark without pics showing what you are looking at. We all have mental images of what we'd be looking at on our own cars, but without knowing exactly what RubyRed is seeing we just can't be sure that our advice applies. Pics of the timing mark tab, distributor, spark plugs, etc would go far to ensuring we are offering appropriate advice.

What geographic location are you (Canada? or California?) and what fuel do you use?

 

you are right about hearing.

from the beginning it was off,


now, it is a matter of whats leaking oil?

 

You could always try to set the timing with a vacuum gauge. I believe that method you set the timing that gives you the most vacuum. Then see what your timing light shows via the normal way.
Seems weird to have the timing marks at 12 o'clock. I have a 72 LT-1 and my timing tab is easily seen from the driver side looking just over the alternator.
My timing is at 16 degrees at idle, vaccum plugged.

 

Not sure what the oil leak was or is, but the positive valve seals and the additive, and thick oil have curbed it pretty good. It hasn't moved on the dip stick in quite a while now so its holding. Im in canada, bc, and I use Chevron 94. Its the highest octane available here and they don't put any techron in the 94. Only the lower grades, and I heard all those additives are bad for carb vehicles because it lowers the boil point of the gas which is 130ish now, back in 73 it was 180! So best fuel we have up here. Heres what I did. I gapped the plugs to 35 which the manual said is for almost all the 350s. But upon cleaning the accel plugs I noticed the electrode is longer and thinner than the original plugs I had to compare, and they actually sit further into the cylinder than the old ones. The old ones were still quite new, I didnt really need to change them way back when I got it but I was tuning up so I did. SO. I cleaned the bosch ones because they had no carbon on them and were just black. Old carb ran rich so I can see that. The bosch ones have a much fatter electrode and its down inside the plug as opposed to the accel ones that stick way out as mentioned. Old plugs looked new after an fit much better being shorter. The accel ones took an hour to get out because I had to use a wrench they were so long the socket wouldn't get past the headers on most of them. These fit great and socket worked on them, much quicker. I then changed out the middle springs on the distributor then put on the weakest ones. Then started it and let it get heat in it, pulled the vacuum and plugged. Set my timing gun to 36 degrees and had the wife hold it at about 3050 rpm. Initially the mark was retarded about 10 degrees, it was an inch past the marker on the retarded side, so I loosened off the distributor and turned it until the mark reached 0 on the indicator. Buttoned it up and put vacuum back on, went for a test drive. Well Im amazed because it went like a scalded dog and only pinged if i really bogged it down, being too low a gear. I was playing with the range to try and get the ping. I think it was timed wrong obviously, but I think those accel plugs had something to do with it. It is running way better with the old plugs in. I did check the Idle timing again too, and it is around 10 before now, so not too much of a change. Im thinking the plugs and the springs played a big roll in this, and timing was 3rd in problems . What confuses me is how can it only have moved say 3 degrees to 10 at idle, but the total timing moved major about 10 degrees maybe more? Is that a result of the spring change affecting top end? Anyway, seems much better, Ill post back in a couple days of driving to update everyone. Thanks for the help, I will total time all my vehicles now, and pay more attention to new plug differences. I had no idea they could be so different for the same application. Wonder if lordco gave me the wrong accel plugs?

 

nice

 

Yes. What you are seeing is the centrifugal advance inside the distributor "kicking" in as the spring tension is overcome by the weight of the arms being flung outward (thus the name centrifugal advance). Some engines (big blocks) can have total timing in the mid-40° to mid-50°, which is a reflection of the combined base timing, spring tension, and vacuum advance, while the base timing is only 8° or so.

 

73 and 74 were the same car besides the rear bumper.

 

Heavy carbon deposits can cause pinging. The carbon chunks will get hot and act as a mini glow plug essentially and can ignite the gas before the spark plug fires.

 

Looks like just the plugs had carbon on them. Clean now, went back to the original Bosch ones it had. I looked in the cylinders with my bore scope and it was pretty clean in there. Bit in valves. Pistons look clean tho. It still pings so I'm figuring the motor is just tired. It's probably low on compression causing all this. I do get some blow by out valve covers. Having the marker tab at 12 o'clock kind of tells me the motor is old, probably older than the car. Guess I'll have to live with it until it dies. Local builder wants 4k for a 400hp replacement with aluminum heads and roller cam. Think I'll save for that, live with this for now.

 

did you make a thread about comp ratio?
1 cyl at 70lbs?

I would back timing couple degrees
keep an eye on plugs and verify heat range
go hotter on cyls that aren't clean
could have stuck ring/s and exercise them by accelerating and using engine
and gears to slow quickly, no brakes.
could even use something like a decarb fluid

 

Pinging isn't a symptom of a "tired" engine. Pinging is a symptom of carbon build up in the combustion chamber, acting like glow-plugs that randallsteel mentioned, or any driving condition where the fuel ignites before full compression like under heavy load, lean fuel delivery, extreme heat, overly-advanced timing, or any combination of these things.

A 12:00 timing tab isn't indicative of "old". Timing tabs for Corvettes/Chevrolet v-8s have been at 1:00-2:00 on the timing chain cover since at least the 283ci engine of '57.
How about some pics of your timing tab?