Discussion Forum - Northstar Chevelle Club

Enganeer · Mega Poster

Good timing light recommendations

Enganeer · Mega Poster

This weekend my timing light leaked out all the wire smoke inside and no longer works.

Voltage was good at 14.4 at alternator, so it was an overcharged voltage, just a cheaper timing light meeting it's end.

So what are some good timing lights?

SteveS · Super Poster

I've got an Equus one like this: Link. It's worked good the few times I've used it. I like the tach displayed on the back and you can dial the advance into the light.

dashboard · 2K+ Club

I just bought this one.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/EQU-5568/

Amazon.com $99.00

Chris R · 2K+ Club

I have a high end Mac tools digital but thats way overkill and too costly for the home user. Either one of these Aqus models will do just fine and if I didnt have a light at all, I would probably pick one of these. Probably the best deal.

jim larson · 2K+ Club

I got the Equus 3568 from Amazon, when all was said and done, total price was about $30 because I applied for their credit card.

dashboard · 2K+ Club

My EQU-5568 arrived Monday I actually took some time and read the short manual, looks like it’s going to be a handy tool, I like the voltage readout feature.

Now I just need a motor to play with.

SShink · 3K+ Club

Wow! That one makes my $30 light look like a relic from the stone ages!

Derek69SS · Founding Member

I thought LS motors made timing lights obsolete.

dashboard · 2K+ Club

Derek69SS wrote:
I thought LS motors made timing lights obsolete.

Some of us are still in the dark ages trading pretty rocks for food, women and beer; I sure wish I had that LS engine.

Chris R · 2K+ Club

dashboard wrote:
Derek69SS wrote:
I thought LS motors made timing lights obsolete.
Some of us are still in the dark ages trading pretty rocks for food, women and beer; I sure wish I had that LS engine.

Store it next to the dwell meter or under the engine scope.

Chris R · 2K+ Club

Derek69SS wrote:
I thought LS motors made timing lights obsolete.

They have actually been obsolete long before that even. As far back as the late 80's when the computer controlled the timing meant you never even had to mess with it even when they had a distributor.

Some vehicles like my 4.3L GMC Jimmy (same thing as S10 blazer) has a distributor but there is a slot in the distributor housing and a tab in the intake so you cant turn it either way without pulling the distributor back out and removing the tab. But it doesnt serve any point when the computer is controlling timing anyways.

This year is my 19th year as an auto technician (and my last) and I can think of only once where I used a timing light in the field, and only because the customer came in with an old body style early 90's F250 that wanted his timing checked. Its gotten way more personal use.

The days of making horsepower by changing weights and advancing or retarding timing have been over for over 20 years now. Especially when OBDII came along (several OBD1's had manual timing).

John D · 2K+ Club

LS motors are making mechanics obsolete... and programmers rich.

Chris R · 2K+ Club

John D wrote:
LS motors are making mechanics obsolete... and programmers rich.

Boy aint that the truth. Although they are still needed for maintenance and such. The laptop and/or scan tool is becomming commonplace in tool boxes next to wrenches and sockets. With engines becomming so much more reliable now, you hardly ever have to touch the engine to ever fix anything.

GM's LS motors are far superior to the small block motors they replaced in almost every way. Reliability and especially performance. 300K miles with just maintenance is not a problem and a simple cam/intake/headers on a 5.3 or 6.0 gives you well over 400 horse, dang near 500HP in some cases.

Fords current generation of 6 cylinder engines are industrictable compared to the previous 6 cylinder they replaced.

I dont know anything about the Chrysler products these days but I havent seen anything negative about them and havent seen a lot of them in any shops I have worked in. Knew a few guys with 300's and both guys liked them a lot. In laws have a new Caravan which they traded in another late model Caravan for. They havent ever complained about them.