Discussion Forum - Northstar Chevelle Club

jim larson · 2K+ Club

Interesting article on setting your timing.

Lost in the 60s · President

Lot faster just to use an advancing timing light.

jim larson · 2K+ Club

Seems like a quick an accurate way of checking how much mechanical advance the weights in the distributor add, so you can make sure your base and mechanical is approximately 36*, so you know if you have to recurve the distributor. I believe they use and advance timing light along with the old style.

bwild70ss396 · Active Member

I did my timing on my El Camino similar to they way they mentioned. I did not take springs out though. After warming engine and disconnect vacuum I set idle screw in until motor was at 3000. I had put the mark on the balancer when rebuilding the motor at 36 degrees. I set the timing there and never paid attention to where it was at idle. Figured that was more important then idle timing.

Lost in the 60s · President

When I had my LS6 in the 70's, I had a timing tape on the balancer and played with different springs and hand filed weight ramps to make sure the timing didn't come in too fast but graduated up to full at 3,000. With the cam it had, it idled at 1,200 rpm and didn't respond to throttle input very well with less than 21° initial, so there wasn't a lot of room for much mechanical advance. The cams operating range was 3,500-7,500..

-- Edited by Lost in the 60s on Saturday 10th of September 2011 01:09:23 PM

jim larson · 2K+ Club

My cam's operating range is 2800-6400. I currently have base timing set at 16* and with vac can disconnected and plugged total advance seems to be approximately 38* at 3000rpm and I think it is all in by that time. Vac can add 12 degrees. This would give me 50* at cruising speed. I just wanted to be sure that 38* @ WOT and 50* at cruising wasn't to much. Is this to much?

I thought I might be able to get a better idea of what the distributor adds if I set the timing at 10*, removed the springs on the weights, and turned the idle screw up until the adjustable timing light read 2000rpm and then adjuste the timing light until it get back to O, then if I took the total and subtracted the 12* base timing, I would have a more accurate measurement of what my distributor is adding.

Then, I could hook everything up so total is say 38, and see how fast the mechanical come in.

It's been recommended to me that I run as much base as possible up to 18* with the cam that I have.