Hmmm Did I do Something Wrong Here???

[BigBlockMonte]

I got the car running pretty good. I put the light on it last night to check base timing and what I seen I couldn't believe.

 

I'm showing with the vaccum line off & plugged, car warmed up idleing at 1000rpms, that I have 28 degrees BTC. I stopped there, I didn't take the engine to 3k to see what the total timing is. I thought the 28 degrees was a bit much. The car doesn't ping or anything.

 

When I put the distributor in, I brought #1 up on the compression stroke, dropped the dist in pointing to what seemed like number one. started it up but had to turn the dist advanced pretty far to run. It was pointing towards the firewall . My neighbor said the dist should be straight across and suggested I had it out 1 tooth. So I brought it back up again, pulled the dist and adjusted it. now it looks like the rotor is pointing almost up the center. the dist is now straight across, so i wondering if I did something incorrect or it is what it is.

 

when I put the timing chain on, I lined up the two marks "0". the crank facing up, & the cam facing down at it, when #1 was up. What did i do wrong?

[Jared Richey]

I had a similar issue on my engine when I tried to cheap out on distributors. It now reads the same thing anyway but its because I have a locked out timing MSD pro billet dist with 6al Box. At idle I have 36 degrees, but its the way the locked out is designed, there are no weights or springs inside my dist at all.

 

What kind of distributor do you have? If the engine is running good, its probably just a small issue (hopefully).

 

 

 

 

[Sam (Bones)]

it doesn't matter where it points too, as long as you change your plug wires to match and you cam time it

 

on my new engine I have the vacuum advance on the drivers side, it's the only place on my set-up where it can go

[kc8oye]

My neighbor said the dist should be straight across and suggested I had it out 1 tooth.

 

This is the myth that never it dies.. it goes on and on my my friend.. *Sigh*

 

there is no such thing as "A tooth off" unless you are trying to re-place the distributor using marks you already made before removing it. If the timing light says it's right, it's right. like sam said.. it doesn't matter where it points.

 

if you get to a point where you can't rotate the base any further to get the timing you need because the advance can is hitting something.. then you could technically call it a tooth off.. but then it's easier to move the plug wires around the circle and adjust the timing back a bit.