How do you establish initial timing? My best buddy, back in Michigan, does it by ear. My bro in law says to slowly advance until it kicks back on start, then back off a couple degrees. I've confirmed the timing mark on the damper is right. Now...
I have mine with new mild cam and lifters set at 18 BTDC is this too far advance, running good but don't want to cause problems
18 degrees or maybe a little bit more for me.
Island girl 10-14 is normal but we aren't talking normal with cam and liftersThat's a bit much for a SBC . . . around 10 - 14 is pretty average.
The real thing to watch for is your max/overall timing, which would be your initial and mechanical combined.
32 to 34 overall is generally max before you start risking damage.
Depending on your distributor, and what adjustments it provides for advance rate and advance travel limits, you may need to set timing based on overall advance, and then let the initial be what it comes out to be.
Aftermarket distro's usually have several springs that allow you to set the advance rate and threshold, and several travel stops that let you set how much they can advance.
If you don't have that kind of control over your advance curve, set it at 32 to 34 at about 3000 rpm, (or wherever it stops advancing as rpm increases) and you're done.
I also don't know if it's just me but she seems to be like a stallion wants to get up and go , bearly touching the throttle she is just growling along waiting to be let loose , just touch the throttle and your off like a sling shot
This is the best way to explain it
Island girl are you getting nay of this storm ? looking like i may miss this one
409T i had to retard it was turning over slow and not acting right18 degrees or maybe a little bit more for me.
This is good if your engine is all stock , but who has one that way ? I had mine set at 15 degrees but was acting funny and turning over slow
so i did retard it a little not sure what it is now but starting and running better , dam hot today got up was 84 at 5:30 am no rides today
I could not disagree more. I never run vacuum advance on my hot rods, and know many who do not as well. Blanket statements like that, when presented to those who are trying to learn can be very misleading and maybe even detrimental.If you don't have a working vacuum advance system and you're trying to split the difference by setting the initial artificially high, you'll have nothing but problems.