Too much timing???
dgibby.
I set mine at 14 initial with almost 40 total. (I have vacuum advance so it probably won't help you much). I tried setting mine to 16 initial once and it pinged like crazy at around 5500+ rpm's.
The altitude here is 4500 @ Clearfield UT.
Is that 40 on the vacuum can or 40 total plus the vacuum? The shape of the curve makes a YYUUUUUUGGE difference in how the same total will respond differently. Most engines will take a butt load of timing when the load on the engine is RELATIVELY low. An example of this would be in 1st gear with zero road speed. You can hit it with timing to get it moving because with all the gear and almost no load it won't ping. That same timing curve, now be rolling along at say, 10 MPH and put it in 4th gear.,mash on it and it will rattle your teeth out. That is too much load for that timing. Curve is everything.
I remember when all the rage was timing boxes started coming with adjustable retards on them. Guys would pull timing at the hit (which is great if you want to kill tire spin or reduce HP at the launch but that wasn't the purpose at that time...they were looking to drop the 60 foot times) and wonder why the car slowed down. In most cases, I add 5-6 degrees MORE total timing in low gear that what my best 60 foot time was. Then, no more than 1 second or so, pull it back out. Cars were quicker in 60 by 5-6 hundredths just by that.
Now, you can have multiple retards so you can add more at the hit and pull it out slower. Really cool.
And for the guys who hate themselves and want to find it all, you can get boxes and systems that allow you to ADD timing back in high gear, effectively changing the slope of the curve.
Great stuff really if you can isolate track segments and you like to test.
Tantibus....love the car and love the fact you are using a Mallory ignition. Great stuff, very underrated.
