Ok well after reading JW cam 101 post a bunch of times and looking at a ton of videos I believe I got it figured out! When my 3 way keyed crank gear i was on zero setting i was a full 6 degrees advance. I reset the crank sprocket to 4 degrees retard and my reading came in 2 degrees advance. With only having 3 keys to work with that’s the closest I could get.. my numbers are real close to cam card specs now. Next time I do am engine i will for sure get a 9 way key to get cam set perfect.
I wouldn't use Rotella in gas engine these days. They no longer list it as for use in gas engines. Formulation has changed and is diesel specific. There is a ton of old info on internet that says OK but it is 10 yr old info. My son was showing me stuff saying good to use in his BMW but old info! It now has magnesium and more detergent than before.
I have swapped oils and after I get this motor back together Im using lucas oil high zinc hot rod oil.
Ok I hate asking this but want to make sure.. if my crank and cam are dot to dot 12 and 6 o clock that is tdc exhaust on #1? So before I put front timing cover on and button front end of motor up I want dots at 12 and 12 for compression stroke? so i Can get my distributor in and roughly 8 degrees advance for initial fire of motor
I always got dot to dot, noon on the crank, and 6 pm on the cam. Even did my Wife’s 5.3 LS thus way, no issues. If you slide the balancer on with the above references you’ll notice your timing mark is at or damn close to “0” on the timing tab.
Yes, that's TDC. The question is "WHICH" TDC? ArcticRyan's post above is correct for most engines. There are exceptions, including some REALLY GOOFY variations like the Ford "Y" block. Point is, the cam gear can be in either position--12:00 or 6:00, the difference is how you'd point the rotor--12:00 rotor points to #1 terminal, 6:00 rotor points to #6 terminal of the distributor cap.
I’m trying to set the motor so I can point the distributor to #1 cylinder at tdc so it will fire for my break in. Most people are saying you need 12 and 12 for both dots when i look at videos.
Ok so i just rotated my motor and when the dots are 6 oclock for Cam and 12 for crank my valves are both closed and piston on #1 is tdc. This would be compression stroke to me. This is when spark would ignite. So this should be where i should leave my engine and where i would set my distributor pointing at #1 for starting? If i have dots are 12 and 12 and i look at my intake and exhaust are partially open.. so this would be exhaust to me
Yep, always lined the dots up 12 on the crank and 6 on the cam. Being the curious type, I noticed the key way positions for the cam and crank, the crank was around 2 o’clock and the cam key way was at 9 o’clock. I also use the “dot to dot” for my starting point for degreeing the cam
What else I’ll do is after you get all that together and BEGORE you drop the distributor back in is rotate the crank counterclockwise so your timing mark on the balancer lines up with the 12 BTDC mark then drop your distributor in with the rotor pointing at #1 terminal. This way, you’re about guaranteed an instant start without having to dick around rotating the distributor.
Motor all put back together. Did the 20 minute break in at 2500 rpm and changed the oil. The rain came in so have to wait to do a drive! But no leaks and motor ran good.
Ok so I got my motor now with 150 miles and pretty happy with it. Up here in Alaska the highest octane I can get at the pump is 90. My motor is 9.5 /1 . If i hammer on the gas i Can just hear a bit of pinging. What octane do you guys think is needed for 9.5/1 compression motor? The little bottles at napa that claim plus 4 octane boost I tried one of them and it seemed to help a little but does that stuff really “boost”?
Racing fuel is a good option for increasing octane. I thought it sucked here in Washington with only 92 available!
Yea its horrible up here. At least we don’t have any ethanol in our fuel! So do you have a jug of race fuel at home and put a couple gallons in before you fill up?
Static compression is not the only consideration. http://members.uia.net/pkelley2/DynamicCR.html Forget the part store octane boost, it's a rip off. Consider Boostane or Torco if you can't get leaded race fuel. https://torcoracefuel.net/products/torco-accelerator https://boostane.com/?gad=1&gclid=C...WuC7tV_lxbjcHzbgayEGhXWXf7MZi4IxoCue4QAvD_BwE Also, what is your total timing? Are you running vacuum advance? Try disconnection the vacuum advance and see if that eliminates the ping. If it does, limit the degrees in the canister. If it doesn't, leave the VA disconnected and reduce the total timing by 2* at a time until you eliminate the WOT ping. Then add the VA and tune that to eliminate any part throttle ping.
I’m at 8 degrees initial with 34 total mechanical advance. I know i need to put on an adjustable canister. I tried swapping over to manifold vacuum on canister and it went all the way to 35 degrees on my dial back light.. that seems like alot of vacuum advance for a canister. As of those additives I don’t believe they will ship to Alaska. I have heard of people mixing av gas. I know we Can get 110LL.. not sure on that. Never have done that and I’ve heard mixed reviews on using av gas Ryan
When you hook the VA to manifold vacuum, the idle speed increases from the added advance. That brings in some mechanical advance as well. If you have most of your mechanical advance in early, you need to limit your VA canister to 10-12* max. You mean 100LL Av gas. CJay did that at one point, not sure if he still does. He used to get it at Republic Airport on Long Island. The pump would ask him for a tail number, he used to put in "71GS455" Av gas has different vapor pressure for aircraft at altitude. Not sure how good that is.
