Super six timing

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Jorge Ramirez

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Hey there every one I need help with timing. I just swapped my old one barrel to the super six set up and want to make sure timing is set to correct specs. I was wondering how to do it or what should rpm be when checking timing. Or how I should go about it. I got my friend timing gun and I bought a vacuum gauge because my old boss said you can pretty much do it with just the vacum gauge and the hit it with the timing gun. And you should be set. But just want to make sure what's the base timing for the super six set up. Thank you in advance
 
Here's the deal. No one knows what your combo is for sure, so it is hard to tell you what the timing should be. I would shoot for 28* total advance by 2500-3K rpm with the vacuum advance disabled. (Is the timing light a dial back type?) Then let the initial fall where it may.

It could be as much as 10* to as little as 2* initial with stock parts....all that is out the window if someone has diddled with your distributor innards in the past.

If you want to wake the car up, it needs a good bit of initial, but keep in mind that anything over 28* total on most slants is a recipe for pinging.
 
mopar_nocar said:
Here's the deal. No one knows what your combo is for sure, so it is hard to tell you what the timing should be. I would shoot for 28* total advance by 2500-3K rpm with the vacuum advance disabled. (Is the timing light a dial back type?) Then let the initial fall where it may.

It could be as much as 10* to as little as 2* initial with stock parts....all that is out the window if someone has diddled with your distributor innards in the past.

If you want to wake the car up, it needs a good bit of initial, but keep in mind that anything over 28* total on most slants is a recipe for pinging.
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Ok cool thank you señor will keep that in mind
 
Every stock or rebuilt/remanufactured distributor I've used on a slant had too much mechanical advance. You have to back the timing way off (low initial) to get it to not ping. To get better performance you will almost for sure need to weld up the advance plates. On slantsix.org there's threads on this as well as a chart telling how much to weld up the slots.
 
kiss said:
Every stock or rebuilt/remanufactured distributor I've used on a slant had too much mechanical advance. You have to back the timing way off (low initial) to get it to not ping. To get better performance you will almost for sure need to weld up the advance plates. On slantsix.org there's threads on this as well as a chart telling how much to weld up the slots.
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What if I put a electronic ignition distributor on it would that make a difference
 
kiss said:
Every stock or rebuilt/remanufactured distributor I've used on a slant had too much mechanical advance. You have to back the timing way off (low initial) to get it to not ping. To get better performance you will almost for sure need to weld up the advance plates. On slantsix.org there's threads on this as well as a chart telling how much to weld up the slots.
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Just pulled two different ones apart. One electronic and one points.....both had 15L advance plates in them....that equals 30* advance. On a slant your would have to run it at 2 ATDC to be in the best range and a small block you couldn't set initial much more than 4*. Why do they all seem to be like that? Where are all the 9R advance plates?
 
mopar_nocar said:
Just pulled two different ones apart. One electronic and one points.....both had 15L advance plates in them....that equals 30* advance. On a slant your would have to run it at 2 ATDC to be in the best range and a small block you couldn't set initial much more than 4*. Why do they all seem to be like that? Where are all the 9R advance plates?
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I have no idea
If you look at the FSM for slant6 cars all through the years they all say to set timing around 0 degrees. Check it out.
I even had a reputable member of the .org forum recurve me a distributor and it still pinged because he didn't weld the advance plates. You HAVE to weld the advance plates (or solder, or JB weld if it lasts, etc) the advance plates on all OEM or rebuilt/remanufactured slant6 distributors. It sucks and it's a pain but it's ping ping ping unless you do it. Unless you want to run your car like a dog at 2 degrees or so advanced.

This should be a sticky in all slant6 forums because it's such a problem with today's gas that people aren't informed of
 
12 BTDC + 18 Mech + 22 Vac = Super Six Setup. Runs great, Slight ping at the top end of WOT...could fix that by bumping the INT down a hair....but you usually ain't WOT daily..So...ehhh

So thats 12 Initial, a 9R Slot, and a 11R Vacuum Can
1 Heavy Spring and 1 Med/Light Spring. Comes in good thru the RPMs.
Vacuum Can adjusted Counter-clock wise to have it come in with light pedal/high vacuum. *Usually all the way counter, starts around 12ish and pulls on in till about 16ish*

If you have a slot bigger than 9R, FBO Systems
Set on the 16* mark....
9R Slot =.387
16* Mark =.393....close enough...

My Super Six in the Twister idles steady around 950 in Neutral, 650 in gear, and 550 in gear with AC on
 
My Super Six loved a lot of initial(18 to 20*), but I did weld the plate to limit the total to 28 or 30*. I also used tuned the vacuum advance to use manifold vacuum, which advanced it even more at idle and part throttle. It drops to no vacuum advance on heavy throttle to keep it from pinging and advances it more at cruise and part throttle for more performance and economy.

Some people will argue with this, but most never limit the mechanical advance to work with the high initial timing, and have never done a back to back comparison. My Slant ran better than any other Slant I came across in over 10 years.
 
kiss said:
This should be a sticky in all slant6 forums because it's such a problem with today's gas that people aren't informed of
Click to expand...

There's nothing about today's gas that's inferior to yesterday's in terms of ignition timing. The relevant property of gasoline is its octane rating (resistance to spontaneous ignition/preignition/ping/"spark knock"). The octane ratings of today's gasoline are pretty much the same as they've been for many years, though the rating system changed from RON (higher numbers for any given fuel, "Regular" was 91 at sea level) to AKI (lower numbers for that same fuel, "Regular" is 87 at sea level). And today's gasoline burns a lot cleaner, which means lower octane requirements in the long run on any engine, because there's much less buildup of knock-causing crud and carbon in the combustion chambers.

Yes, there were some very-high-octane Super High Test gasolines available back then (100-RON). The same is true now (94-AKI). No, nobody with more than two working brain cells was putting high-test gasoline in Slant-6 engines configured anywhere near stock back then, and the same holds true now. Yes, most of today's gasoline contains 10% ethanol. No, that doesn't have any effect on optimal ignition timing.

By all means spend as much time and effort as you can getting your advance curves optimized for your particular engine, car, location, fuel, and driving. Or pay DusterIdiot (over on slantsix.org) to do it for you. That's always been a good idea; the factory configuration is intended to work reasonably well for most drivers of most cars in most conditions on most fuel, within the bounds of whatever new-car emissions regulations applied to the vehicle any given distributor was intended for.

But it has nothing to do with today's fuel vs. yesterday's.
 
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