318 advancing A lot

-
schwinger

schwinger

1972 Dodge Dart Swinger
Joined
Jun 24, 2008
Messages
532
Reaction score
177
Location
Fresno, California
I was checking the full advance on my car for the first time and found out it was advancing all the way to 60 degrees. Was set at 0 degrees tdc at idle so i changed it to 8 degrees btdc and it advanced to 55, alittle lower but ran alittle better and i know optimum is around 36. but ive been driving like this for a year straight and had no problems, no pinging or anything and its the cheapo stock autozone electronic distributor. I rechecked the timing again with the vacuum advance disconnected and still had the same same reading, even check to see if it had advance springs and it did and the springs had tension to it. Im just alittle baffled about this, do they run that high of advance?
 
I would verify the TDC mark first and recheck. Then If I hadn't found an answer I would try a different timing light.
 
Part of what you posted makes no sense. Moving initial from TDC to 8 BTDC SHOULD make it advance MORE. Are you sure you did not RETARD the timing, or are you sure you didn't type this out wrong?

60 is certainly not unheard of---including vacuum advance. "Smog" dist. advance curves are notoriously slow and long. The only real cure is to either

buy a performance dist. with a short curve

recurve the one you have by welding/ brazing the slots shorter

buy an FBO limiter plate which I have not tried.

In addition you need a "spring kit" which gives you a selection of weaker than factory springs to speed up the rate of advance.

The total timing picture is simply adding up initial degrees + mechanical advance + vacuum. Vacuum "goes away" under load and wide open
 
67Dart273 said:
Part of what you posted makes no sense. Moving initial from TDC to 8 BTDC SHOULD make it advance MORE. Are you sure you did not RETARD the timing, or are you sure you didn't type this out wrong?
Click to expand...

Sorry got that screwd up, i retarded it 8 degrees and I installed a new pioneer harmonic balancer which the timing mark matched up to my old one redfish. The timing light i used was from a friend which we both checked timing on my car and his at this road course event and his total timing was at 36 degrees at 3000 rpms and mine at 45 at that rpm but increased passed that so i dont think his timing light is bad, his is a chevy tho. Im gona try the spring kit and hopes that works if i can find one and also would cam timing affect that? i retarded the cam 2 degrees.
 
60 degrees total is probably right on the money with a stock distributor and vacuum advance included.
 
Cam timing won't affect what you read with a light

MSD ignition, if you have one, can cause problems with some lights.

Very first thing I'd do, if you have not, is to verify mark accuracy with a piston stop.
 
Alright checked the mark with the piston stop and its 1 degree off, nothing way out of wack so im just gonna run it like that then, been like that for awhile and havent gave me any problems so i might as well leave it alone. thanks again guys for the info
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top