When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Engine likes 0 degrees of advance? That can’t be right
Good evening,
This is a bit of a continuation of this thread, but if you don’t feel like reading that here’s the short version.
Car was running great before all of this. Smooth idle, good acceleration, could set the timing just like normal.
Accidentally left the parking lights on for too long, draining the battery
After a jump it starts, the resulting voltage spike is what I believe started all these issues
Half a mile down the road I lose the gauges. This was later found out to be caused by the tachometer board shorting out, blowing the gauges fuse
A few miles later the car dies completely, blown ignition module
Clean/rebuild the distributor, set endplay to .020”
After a new module it starts, but runs rough
Test the battery. Good on CCA, but low reserve capacity
New battery
Noticed the plugs looked dark, possibly fouled out
New NGK BKR5Es, .045” gap
Still running rough, I ohmed the ignition coil and found it to be bad
New coil, confirmed good
Ran Seafoam in the tank and percolated water down the carburetor to clean carbon deposits out of the combustion chambers
Replaced the ignition module again with a high quality unit
Had a smooth idle, and I thought everything was good
I drove it to the gym today and after making it there the car wanted to stall when in gear. Wondering if it had something to do with timing I put the light on it when I got home.
16 initial plus 12 from the vacuum advance. This is the same as how it had been set before all of this, and worked great then
Now with this timing spec it will want to die when put into gear. Once it comes off of high idle of course.
Took the mechanical advance springs off and plugged the VA to see if there was an issue with the mechanism
It seems when I make the timing more retarded the idle speed increases, quite a bit actually
Note how the digital display is set to 0 degrees of advance. The (hot) idle speed was set to 850 too.
As I’m seeing with my timing light now the engine is running strongest with 0 degrees of advance. I’m not as educated as some people are on here about engine dynamics, but I know they actually tend to run best in the 20-30 degree range. I quadruple checked that I was on the #1 spark plug wire, and with the clamp going the right direction.
The only things I can think of are either a slipped balancer or the timing chain skipping a tooth. Both of which I find are unlikely given that they were new ~3 years ago with only a few thousand miles on them. Can anyone think of any other reason why I would be experiencing this? Neither of these are too hard to fix, but it would be an awful coincidence for them to happen at the exact same time as my electrical problems.
Last edited by Piersonpie; May 13, 2026 at 08:25 AM.
For a quick test you can point the rotor to the #1 cylinder, take the spark plug out and using a small wooden dowel "feel" the piston coming up to TDC then check your 0° mark on the harmonic balancer. Just don't put the dowel in too far.
Maybe I'm thinking about the physics wrong... I'm pretty sure a slipped damper would be the opposite problem. The outer ring is going to slip counter clockwise, backwards from engine rotation, so that the engraved line moves to advanced territory when the hub is at actual TDC. To get the mark to 0°, the actual would be retarded from TDC.
I figured a slipped balancer wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities, just strange that it’s only a couple years old and seemed to happen at the same exact time as my electrical issues. I know I could make one, but I ordered the TDC tool. Should be here sometime next week.
Last edited by Piersonpie; May 13, 2026 at 02:28 PM.
I have a Quadrajet, but out of curiosity why would that make the engine like very little timing?
I was just opening up another Avenue to consider. I've experienced this when I had a Holley on a different car and it went from running well to stumbling all over itself in the blink of an eye.
You have a Q-jet, so it's not that!
I'm pretty sure you are not supposed to run an HEI distributor without weights, your readings will be off since the springs prevent the weights from moving beyond the intended range.
I'm pretty sure you are not supposed to run an HEI distributor without weights, your readings will be off since the springs prevent the weights from moving beyond the intended range.
Interesting, I’ll put them back on and give it a shot.
I knew that whenever I found out what was making the car run so bad it would be something stupid and simple, but I wasn’t expecting this.
Some idiot 3 years ago (me) wanted to find true TDC while the cylinder heads were off.
You know the method. Turn it over until it stops, mark at zero, then go the other way and mark it at zero again. The spot between the marks is your true TDC. Looks like what I’ve been looking at this whole time has been that first mark, about 45 degrees advanced of what it should be. And then I added 16 degrees on top of that.
Put the springs back on, timed it like it’s supposed to, and took it for a test drive. It drives wonderfully, of course.
Thank you for coming along on my brain fart adventure. This will certainly not be my last.
The Permanent Marks you left on the damper Three years ago may or may Not be true Today.
Three years hence; the inertia ring may have slipped (and those marks which imply True TDC) may have moved.
Last edited by Rebelyell; May 15, 2026 at 07:08 AM.
Engine likes 0 degrees of advance? That can’t be right
