figuring out advance timing

RustyRatRod said
Old thread, but there's a very simple solution. As I try to preach on damn near a daily basis sometimes, ALL THIS is covered in depth in the Master Mopar Performance engine manual. It describes in DEPTH how to use a vacuum gauge to find highest cruise vacuum in conjunction with a timing light and get the timing curve SPOT ON. But no matter how much I preach it, it either falls on deaf ears, or somebody shoots it down with an stupid argument. Normally the arguments are that the MP manual is dated. That's pretty stupid considering distributors, carburetors and vacuum devices are also dated. Kinda matches up, don't it? You can get a perfect timing curve in a weekend afternoon REAL easy that matches your combo perfectly if you will simply take the time to find the information and actually READ IT.

It’s even easier on an engine dyno. You can load it up and move the timing around while watching vacuum, torque and horsepower.

I have a 3 step retard in the shop that is going out Monday to get rewired. With that, I can sit at the desk and change the timing and know exactly how many degrees I’m moving it and watching the numbers.

Then you take that data and curve the distributor to get the curve it likes the best.

You can’t do that on an inertia chassis dyno (or the far more rare crank inertia dyno) because you can’t get a steady state load on the engine.

BTW, you can do the same thing when changing your emulsion/bleed package.