Timing light and advance/retarding timing help

[QC DSM ESiT]

Okay well I have the just basic timing light and I know how to hook that stuff up but other then that I dunno really what I'm doing. Sorry I feel really dumb that I don't know how but my other project vehicle wasn't distributed so I never had a reason to mess with timing or a timing light. So hopefully some of you guys might be able to help as to how to advance/retard the timing and were I'm pointing the light for the marks and all that good stuff. Thanks in advance guys.

[cordes]

Unplug the coolant temp sensor when the car is up to temp, loosen the dist hold down bolt just enough so that you can turn it, and then light up the timing window with the gun. Turn the dist counter clockwise to advance the timing IIRC and clockwise to retard it. The hashes on the timing window start at 0* and go up in 2* increments. Stock timing is 12*.

[RoadWarrior222]

btw, helps to clean the marks real good, and rub white paint, correcting fluid, white wax pencil or something in them.

[QC DSM ESiT]

alright guys, sounds easy enough. I'll let you know how things go this weekend. Thanks guys.

[1966 dart wagon]

i know people advance there timing for more power, how do u know your cars limit? when u ping/detonate?

[overlordsshadow]

Well I know that with the stage 5 cal you for sure don't want more than 12*, the less the better.

[RoadWarrior222]

Yeah, you can just advance advance advance until you crack pistons acclerating uphill, then on your next motor, try 2 degrees less.

[overlordsshadow]

^^haha

[johnl]

If you are raising boost above stock and you don't want to sign up for an advanced course in turbo mopar tuning, then - for the sake of your stock pistons - run it at less than 12*

[GLHSKEN]

^^^ amen

[Aries_Turbo]

If you are raising boost above stock and you don't want to sign up for an advanced course in turbo mopar tuning, then - for the sake of your stock pistons - run it at less than 12*

amen X2..... reason being that the stock computer doesnt reduce timing over 15psi...... the timing level at 15psi is the same timing level at 25psi.... which is bad. a rough estimate is -.75 deg of timing per pound of boost.... so if you are running 18psi and have enough fuel for whatever reason, back the dist down at least 1.5 deg or 10.5 deg of base timing if not more. you really need to watch a scanner so you can see the knock retard to determine how much you have to back the distributor down till it doesnt hit knock retard. problem with that is that the rest of the timing curve is retarded but its not as bad as broken crap. the best way to fix it is to get a cal.

Brian

[1966 dart wagon]

Yeah, you can just advance advance advance until you crack pistons acclerating uphill, then on your next motor, try 2 degrees less.

i see, thanks for the info

[RoadWarrior222]

You can do it by ear on N/A and get away with it, but supreme caution is required to do it on a boosted motor, because by the time it's bad enough to hear, damage is happening. Anyone determined to get the last tenth of a percent out of their motor, will advance in very small amounts, while logging a knock sensor output. But it's not really advisable to tune it right on the edge, 'coz what happens the time you fill up with 91 octane, and the blend was slightly off and it's only 90.5, besides which fact that all "91" octanes aren't the same, they're an average of RON+MON and one could be skewed higher on MON than RON and another could be the other way round leading to slightly differing combustion characteristics.

[1966 dart wagon]

You can do it by ear on N/A and get away with it, but supreme caution is required to do it on a boosted motor, because by the time it's bad enough to hear, damage is happening. Anyone determined to get the last tenth of a percent out of their motor, will advance in very small amounts, while logging a knock sensor output. But it's not really advisable to tune it right on the edge, 'coz what happens the time you fill up with 91 octane, and the blend was slightly off and it's only 90.5, besides which fact that all "91" octanes aren't the same, they're an average of RON+MON and one could be skewed higher on MON than RON and another could be the other way round leading to slightly differing combustion characteristics.

awh i see, that makes sence, advancing the timing alows for better combustion correct? and i understand the part of not all fuels are equal. I was just told it was something to do with vaccum, how does that sound?

[turbovanman²]

awh i see, that makes sence, advancing the timing alows for better combustion correct? and i understand the part of not all fuels are equal. I was just told it was something to do with vaccum, how does that sound?

Advanced timing does help if you have a crappy combustion chamber design. But if you go to far, BOOM is usually the result.

Older models got vacuum advances to advance the timing before computer controls took over.

[QC DSM ESiT]

Okay guys, I've got my base timing back to 12degrees. It seems to run a little better. When I was using the timing light though the light wasn't always flashing when I held the trigger. It would flash like a strobe light (like it should) for about 3 sec. then it wouldn't flash at all for about 2 sec. then it would flash again for a second or 2 and then it wouldn't flash at all again for a couple seconds. I tried adjusting the wires and stuff with no luck on changing it. I dunno if its just because I have a cheap light or maybe because I have Magnacore 8.5mm plug wires or because of the MSD Blaster SS coil.

Also I dunno how its supposted to run with the coolant temp sensor unpluged but it ran a hell of a lot better with it out then when I plugged it back in.

[turbovanman²]

If the light does that, its usually due to a cheap timing light or the pickup around #1 wire isn't closed properly.

Rare cases, I've seen a weak coil do it but you have that base covered.