before=advanced
after=retard

 

Thank you that is what I thought.  What should I time it at 

 

try 8 degrees then take it for a drive then adjust as nesssary advance or retard for whenever there is no pinging.

 

is it the '75? what year is the engine?
if the engine is made before '81 I say ~10* btdc
after '81 I say ~16* btdc

 

    That paint job jooks exactly like mine.  Jasper engine?
The jasper rebuild in my 85 was happy at 2 degrees BTDC. The sticker on my hood calls for 0 drgrees.  I put in a lunati RV cam and it now runs best at 12 degrees.

Play with it
Drive
Lather
Rinse
Repeat if desired


    One note tho.  If you cant seem to find a setting that doesnt ping on accelleration while still being easy to start, check your vacum advance on the distributor, if that isnt working youl pull your hair out trying to get it to run right.

 

I set timing at 35 degrees total and let the initial timing fall where it may.  Depending on the cam and wheter its a late 70's smog engine depends on what the engine likes for initial.  Alot of the late 70's engines were designed to run at 16 before and woudln't even hardly run at 8.  Late 80's engines run at 8 before and will ping at 16.  So initial timing depends on alot of factors like cam and how much mechanical advance is built into distributor.  Thats why I set at total timing at about 3000 rpm and set the timing at 35 degrees before.  If it dont' idle right after that then I modify how much mechanical advance is in the distributor.

 

the marks only go up to 10 on both sides... 

 

Get a good light with the adjustment knob on the back of the light.  Then set the light to zero on the mark.  Whatever the knob reads is your advance.

 

the marks only go up to 10 on both sides... Â

There are two different marks you can use. The ones you are talking about are mounted to the timing cover and you use the "groove" on the dampener as your reference.

If you look really close, possibly requiring a flashlight and some cleaning of the dampener, you'll see marks on the dampener itself that go much higher than 10 (I don't remember how high though). You use the center line on your timing cover and reference it to the numbers on the dampner.

These marks are really hard to see especially with a timing light. The best fix is to by some Mopar or MSD timing tape. These make the numbers really easy to see with a timing light.

You can also just use a marker to mark the degree you are shooting for, this will make it easy to see with a timing light.

 

I Use to mark the damper at like 25 then set that on 10 of the timing cover to get 35.  Or you could mark the damper at 35 if it goes that high.  I used either White Out or white paint marker.  Now days i use my digital timing light with advance.

 

huh, seems really weird. My 318 liked 8 degrees..more advanced then it will ping. 

 

bump

 

huh, seems really weird. My 318 liked 8 degrees..more advanced then it will ping.

Thats probably normal. My dads 87 had a 318 and the sticker called for 8 degrees too. Back then I never played around with timing outside of factory specs to see what it would do so I don't know if it would ping at 10 or 12. This truck now has a 360 with MP cam and it won't idle worth a damn at 8 degrees. It likes 16 or so and doesn't ping because I modified distributor to have only 20 degrees mechanical advance.

 

but it use to run good at 12 degrees..now this new motor likes 8. dunno whats up..

 

but it use to run good at 12 degrees..now this new motor likes 8. dunno whats up..

probally carbon build up in the chamber, or the outer ring of your balancer spun a little

 

huh..i did reuse the old balancer off my old motor for this reman motor. Do you think its a problem or should i just leave it alone?

 

huh..i did reuse the old balancer off my old motor for this reman motor. Do you think its a problem or should i just leave it alone?

If i runs good, leave it alone. Not every engine likes the same timing as the next engine. Many things effect the perfect timing. Cam and compression are the biggest things that affect it.

 

huh..i did reuse the old balancer off my old motor for this reman motor. Do you think its a problem or should i just leave it alone?

just leave it until it falls apart. they dont hurt anything when they do.

 

what are the effects of modifying the distribitor to have a different advance? Also i had a cam put in a while back, and it doesn't have the low end torque it had before i put the new cam in. The new cam is not much above the stock cam. How much of a difference performance wise could the timing make if its off a few degrees?

 

what are the effects of modifying the distribitor to have a different advance?

You're engine will perform it's best when the timing is as advanced as it can be without pinging. Combusion in the chamber takes a certain amount of time and nothing can change that. As RPM increases, there is less time for combustion to take place, so the combustion process needs to be started sooner by advancing your timing,

By properly curving your distributor, you can have the timing as advanced as it can be at any given RPM.

 

what are the effects of modifying the distribitor to have a different advance? Also i had a cam put in a while back, and it doesn't have the low end torque it had before i put the new cam in. The new cam is not much above the stock cam. How much of a difference performance wise could the timing make if its off a few degrees?

There is two parts really to changing the advance on a distributor: how much and how fast. The faster and more you give it the more lively the engine will be. Too much and too fast will ping though. Dyno test have shown that SB Mopar engines like 35 degrees total at WOT. More then that may not ping but it more then likely wont' increase power much or any. Running fuel that is 10% Ethanol would probably require a few more degrees timing. How fast a distribtor advances is controlled by the springs. A quick trick for is to remove the heavy spring in the distributor and just leave it out. I did this on 3 engines and only 1 pinged from it. Controlling how much a distributor advances is rather hard. You have to either Braze, weld or heat up the ends of the slots to make them smaller.

Your second question was about your cam. This is a classic example about why you should degree a cam in. Too me it sounds like the cam is retarded. Productions tolerences between chain, block, crank, and cam can throw the cam timing off what blue print specs are. Even factory engines can be off. I found a 360 Magnum engine that was 4 degrees retarded and factory stock. 4 degrees makes a big difference. I would pull your timing cover off and advance your cam 4 degrees. If you have a timing chain with 3 different spots for the crank gear then put it on the advance one. Call it good and put it back together.

 

Its only got 1 keyslot on both crank and cam. How much difference can one tooth off make? Is there a way to tell if the cam is retarted? Should I go ask the mechanic that put the cam in for me?

 

Its only got 1 keyslot on both crank and cam. How much difference can one tooth off make? Is there a way to tell if the cam is retarted? Should I go ask the mechanic that put the cam in for me?

1 tooth off would be about 16 degrees. It wouldn't hardly run if it was off that much. It would run but not the best. Only way to know if a cam is retarded or not is by degreeing it in. From your description saying that you didn't go much bigger on the cam but lost torque tells me its retarded, or just needs to be advance to get your torque back. You shouldn't lose or gain very much torque by going a step or two bigger on cam. You should just gain more up top. 4 degrees cam timing will move power band almost 1000 rpm.

 

if there is only one keyslot, how could it be retarted? (how could it be off) and how would you fix it?

 

sorry this is a little off topic but How do you adjust your timing?