I've used points and a magnetic trigger in the same distributor and it liked the same settings. A pertronics conversion and a good coil is all I've used for the last 12 years or so. cstanley- I in no way want to sound insulting but is it possible you misread the 2 timing adjustment? I know the first time I used a dial back light I didn't understand how they worked and had my timing all kinds of screwed up.
headers are to loud? thats the silliest thing ive heard! dont be a wuss. i have headers and dual 2 1/2 exhaust with flowmaster 2 chamber mufflers. Quiet as can be. heck i even mounted the mufflers under the front seat are. Its a temp exhaust. Never heard of headers being loud, Unless they are running open headers.
i have 4 drum brakes. whats that have to do with anything? lol. i just put a little pressure on the brake, slowly let the car load up, apply a lil more pressure on th brake and give it full throttle, Slowly let off the brake and its spinning. Or i could just stay at the line, floor it and let it spin that way.
CStanley, I had the same issue initially with my 70 GS 350. I had an additional carb issue that I had to correct first but a good tune-up and adjusing my total advance to 32 Degrees and :3gears:. I'm running a stock motor, even points and it handles the advanced timing fine. Make sure your vacuum advance is working properly. Set your initial timing with the vacuum line disconnected and the vacuum contact on your distributor plugged. Once completed, reattach the vacuum line and check your total advance by watching with your timing gun and slowly increasing your RPM until the timing mark quits increasing. This is your total advance and it may be a few degrees higher or lower but you should be close to 32 degrees. If I go higher with mine I'll start pinging when I get on it. Good luck!
Thats what I have mine set at for initial and 38 total all in by 2000 rpm using the crane kit. Next I want to get the dist re-curved.
all this is good information. Currently the car does have HEI distributor. I can see I have some reading to do too. What I did yesterday evening was warm the car up, let her idle, and hook up the timing light to the number 1 plug wire. The car read 9. So I turned the distributor counter clock wise and brought the timing to about 1 - 2. I didnt disconnect the vacuume, didnt read that part. :Smarty: ou: One question though... Can I use a multi meter to read RPMs? Im not sure on the accuracy of my tach.... o No:
I'm not sure about the multi-meter thing, but it sounds like your on the right track. Heres a shot of my 350 doing it's thing when it was bone stock...
Hey, make sure the cars is running at FULL operating temperature and not just warmed up. Maybe you are doing that but I want to be sure all the bases are covered.
Then you've never heard mine :rant: I have the same problem as cstanley, and I have itty bitty 225/60/14 tires. I'm fairly sure my problem is exactly the same as his - carb not tuned and ignition not set up right. The carb thing is being fixed, and the ignition thing will be fixed as soon as I get the carb here so the car is running half way decently before I try to tune it.
The vacuum advance can add a ton of timming to you reading at idle. Your timming is way retarded, unhook that advance set your initial to 10-12 and then make sure to check your total advance. Your total advance is most likely way to high. You will have to mess around with the inside of the distributor to limit the mechanical advance. Does your timming light have a dial on the back? This is helpful for checking total advance. If not you can mark the balancer so it can be checked.
Some low compression 350's will like a rediculous amount of advance. I've run mine with as much as 25 initial. This is dangerous ground though because you have to find a way to limit total timing if you run more than maybe 15 initial. If you run a lot of initial timing you might find your car no longer needs the vacuum advance. I've been running mine this way for years and it drives around smooth as glass as if it were bone stock. I agree about the headers shouldn't be too loud. I had hooker super comps, 3" x-pipe and 2 chamber race mufflers and it was smooth and quiet unless the throttle was mashed. Its all in the routing of the exhaust exits. I could post a pic of my tips if you want to see how I got it to quiet down.
65 special I have a 65 special that when I floor it won't even chirp. I was told it should at least do something. When I tried to hold the brakes it would die. When I went in reverse it would leave big long marks. Is this common?
I had that problem too ou: with a 200r4 tranny. Then I found out I had no first gear. I only used the tranny for a weekend then pulled it out and rebuilt it.
I limited my crane adj. canister using a tiny nut and bolt and that worked great for me because I could bump up the initial a bit more.
Kellys right, if you checked your timing without removing the vaccum advance and got 1 or 2 degrees then your timing is retarded about 15 degrees or so. You need around 10 degrees advanced inital without the vaccum at idle then your about 25 degrees retarded from what you need. If you do have a dialback timing light set the dial to zero and use the marks on the timing tab on the front cover until your more familiar with what your doing. Get the timing even close to where it needs to be and it will make a world of difference in how it runs. Dave B
You do realize that since you have an HEI distributor installed, that the tag info is irrelevant and pretty much useless. The HEI's commonly have alot of mechanical advance which restricts how much initial advance you can run without overadvancing at higher RPM's You need to adjust the total timing to about 32-34* for starters. Also, you probably have ported vacuum to the vacuum advance, so there is no advance at idle. Disconnect it anyway when making your timing adjustments, but it probably had no effect on your last adjustment. Then see where your initial ends up. Have you read my timing post? Do you understand it?
hey Larry I read your post on timing. I think I understand. I dont have a dial on my timing light so I will have to mark 30 on my balancer. Ill keep everyone posted on my progress.... Curtis
OK, that is good. Try to be as accurate as possible with the 30* mark. Also realize that the springs in your distributor may no allow all the advance in until 4000 RPM or more. You don't want to rev the engine up that high in park. That is why it is a good idea to buy the Crane kit and use the lightest springs to check your total advance. You won't have to rev it more than 2000 RPM.
Ok... now I'm confused.... I took of the vacuume advance, and didnt know which end to plug so I plugged both the vacuume line and the vacuume advance. I loostened the bolt for the distributor and started the car. At this point the factory mark on the balancer is between 1 and 2 on the timing cover. holding the timing light in my left hand I rev'd up the motor with my right hand on the carb. the factory mark on the balancer would only move up as high as 6. I couldnt see the tach inside but it was as high as I would put the RPM's. So when I turned the distributor to get my 30 mark on 0, the car didnt seem to run right when I let it back to idle.
Sounds like the mechanical advance is not working correctly. Take the distributor out. If you can find a shop that recurves distributors, take it to them and tell them you want to run 10 degrees initial and 30 degrees total all in by 2500 RPM. They will know what you mean. If you want to do it yourself, underneath the rotor you will find the springs and weights that controll the mechanical advance. I bet they are pretty crusty and don't move freely. Clean them up and check to make sure they move freely. Now you have to start all over setting your initial and checking total advance. You will also need to limit total because it will surely have to much mechanical advance. Get a friend to help you check total, you don't have enough hands.
