Distributor question

-
straightlinespeed

straightlinespeed

Sometimes I pretend to be normal
Joined
Oct 21, 2012
Messages
10,630
Reaction score
4,399
Location
Uvita, Costa Rica
Ok guys bare with me on this. A few of you on here have been helping me try to figure out what my car is doing. First it was timing it, then I found out that I had a bad cylinder so I had the engine shop take care of that. I just got it back from them. Well it still doesnt want to go anywhere from a dead stop to about 20mph.

When I had help on here awhile back I was tweaking the timing. At that time my vacuum advance was pointing towards my passenger front tire with about 12-15* initial. Now that I have it back from the engine shop I finally had time to pop the hood and look around more. I noticed that my vacuum advance is now pointed almost to the front of the car, I know they have it set at 11* initial. Why would my distributor be clocked so much differently now?

Is my distributor that far out of whack??
 
Did they have the engine apart? The distributor gear out? Probably did not get the distributor gear back in the same spot

Now it doesn't matter. One member on here used to say "that the gear (rotor) can point to China" as long as the no1 wire is hooked to the rotor at the proper time.

Here

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=230216
 
Yep they had the engine out and apart. I was wondering if that gear was just placed where ever. Then again I wasnt sure if it really mattered. Thank you that explains it!
 
Yeah it's true you can point the rotor wherever you want, but there is a right way to do it. If you install it by the book, you won't have any interference issues with anything.
 
You could also move the wires one hole counterclockwise and re-time the engine. Give you more swing on your vacuum canister
 
Well I moved my gear but that was only because I brought my dizzy in to get curved. I found out that there were some major issues with it.

The guy threw it on the machine and started checking it. First he said that it was hunting and would not hit one specific area firing area. Which I noticed while trying to time it in the car. He said he made a quick adjustment and took care of that. The next issue was that the mechanical started opening at 1000 and was all in by 1300. So he switched springs to get it to start opening at 1600 and was all in by 2400. My idle is to be set at 900.

The other thing I did to my dizzy was I welded up the slots for the mechanical. I did it according to the Mopar article and according to that it should have made it about 20* at the crank. My numbers where right on! Well he said that I only have 12* at the crank now, because of the welded slots. He said I should time it to about 22* or there about.

So I threw it back into the car, started setting my timing and it no longer hunted. That was nice! I set it at 22* and the car starts great. I rev it up to 3k and Im at about 34*.

Im still having a issue with the low end take off and it not having any power... It just seems to bog and run like crap. Now that I have the dizzy curved, is it a carb issue now, or do I still mess with the timing?

Oh should I start a new thread on this issue?
 
I don't remember the rest of the combo. What gears are you running and what torque converter.

When I did a cam swap my car was a complete dog off the line. Once I got into the power band of the cam it was on. I swapped out the rear gears to 3.55's and it really woke it up. I still need a torque converter installed, but I'm just gonna wait until I have my 360 built.
 
Bad Sport said:
I don't remember the rest of the combo. What gears are you running and what torque converter.

When I did a cam swap my car was a complete dog off the line. Once I got into the power band of the cam it was on. I swapped out the rear gears to 3.55's and it really woke it up. I still need a torque converter installed, but I'm just gonna wait until I have my 360 built.
Click to expand...


Sorry, here is that info.

LA 360, magnum heads, Air gap, TTI headers, xe268 cam, 2000 stall converter, 3:73 gears.
 
straightlinespeed said:
Im still having a issue with the low end take off and it not having any power...
Click to expand...

At what point does it seem to take off good?

I'm not saying you don't have tuning issues, but just relaying what my experience has been. Mine runs better with the gears but it still is a bit slow on take off until I hit the power band.
 
Bad Sport said:
At what point does it seem to take off good?

I'm not saying you don't have tuning issues, but just relaying what my experience has been. Mine runs better with the gears but it still is a bit slow on take off until I hit the power band.
Click to expand...

It really dont take off until about 20mph plus.

If I were to try a brake stand, it wont even spin the tires. It just bogs way down and almost wants to die.
 
I gonna say you have a tuning issue. That combo should spin the tires easily as long as the engine is healthy internally. When the cam was installed was it degreed?
 
duster360 said:
I gonna say you have a tuning issue. That combo should spin the tires easily as long as the engine is healthy internally. When the cam was installed was it degreed?
Click to expand...

I had a engine shop build the engine and it only has 100 miles on it. I doubt they degreed it. Im sure they put it in with the dots lined up.
 
Im about 99.9% sure they lined the dots up. They had to rebuild the engine a second time and the first time I had to assemble the engine. I bought it as a long block. The dots where lined up. I doubt they did anything different this time.

So if they didnt? How does that affect the engine?
 
straightlinespeed said:
Im about 99.9% sure they lined the dots up. They had to rebuild the engine a second time and the first time I had to assemble the engine. I bought it as a long block. The dots where lined up. I doubt they did anything different this time.

So if they didnt? How does that affect the engine?
Click to expand...

Dot to dot most of the time is fine. It will do well enough for a daily driver. But sometimes even then you can get a bad one. If the gears or cam ( or both ) are out of time from the manufacturer it can kill the engine. I had one a I put together when I was a teenager and got the timing 1 tooth off and it was a slug on the bottom end and would not rev good in high gear. It was 8* out of time. Even at 4* out of time your power would be terrible.
 
I have read where members on FABO have ran into this problem. Maybe someone who has experienced this can chime in.
 
First, a 2K converter is stock in a Mopar. The stock stall in a Mopar is around 1750, with the factory high stall about 1K more. So, you've done pretty much nothing but put a stock converter in it. The 3.73 gears are good. I think between the tune and converter you will fix your problem.

Now, I am going give you some what for a little bit. You need to give us more details. Even in your PMs to me, I had to ask. If you want help, you need to help us give you help. Is your engine stock compression? Headers? Tell us everything. The more you impart, the better chance we have of helping you.
 
Sorry for the lack of details. Here is everything I know about the car.

LA 360 (bored .030)
Magnum heads
Air Gap Intake
XE268H cam
Street Avenger 670 Carb (out of the box, no changes have been made yet)
TTI Headers
Stock Electronic Ignition (dizzy, ECU)
Timed to 22* initial and I have 12* Mechanical. For a total of 34*
Compression is 9:1 (but not entirely sure. Im not sure how to figure this)(i know the engine was not zero decked, just standard resurfacing)
727 Trans
2000 stall converter
3:73 gears

Pretty sure that is all the info. If Im forgetting something, sorry.

Im still very open to all of your help and appreciate it all.
 
Yup, you probably are fairly close to 9:1 With Magnum heads, I would GUESS. That is assuming a stock replacement piston was used. My guess is somewhere between 8.8 and 9:1. I think that's a good guess. The combination seems pretty well matched, even considering the converter. Here is what I would do. Take a compression test. Do all the cylinders. Record the readings and get back to us. I bet it is low. That means degreeing the cam will probably help a lot. I would start there first and worry about converter later, because degreeing the cam might make so much difference, another converter may not matter.
 
RustyRatRod said:
Take a compression test. Do all the cylinders. Record the readings and get back to us.
Click to expand...

I can give you the compression numbers before the rebuild but it will be awhile before I can get new numbers. I dont have my tester at my house and I have to try to get it back. The first rebuild the readings where from 149-155. I have them written down in another post. It runs exactly the same as then,so Im betting the compression is close to the same.

Since I cant do the compression test, I decided to check my timing again tonight and I was actually only at 20* initial. So I bumped it up to 24*, I reved it up and was at about 38* total. Idle set at 900rpm. When I put it in gear I drop about 4-500rpm. I decided to take it for a spin with the vacuum advanced unhooked and the port plugged to try it, very doggy from a dead stop. Rolling at 20mph + it was hesitant and kind of stumbled. I made it down the road stopped and hooked the vacuum advance up. Tried the dead stop start and doggy, didnt surprise me. Although the rolling 20mph+ was snappy and right on. So with the vacuum advance hooked up, the engine performed better. Is that typical?

I also checked the timing in neutral and in gear. It did not change. Although I noticed that when I was timing the car before this post sorry I cant remember the exact number but it was between 11* (where the engine shop had it set) and 20* (my last setting) when I put it in gear I would only drop about 200rpm with my idle set at 900rpm.

What are your thoughts on the RPM drop as I add timing to the engine?
 
Sounds like you have a vacuum leak. It should not drop 4-500rpm in gear.

Should be pulling 14-15" or more vaccum at idle and idle at 800-850.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top