timing

[For Paw]

I have a timing question for my 427SO. I just found out through my engine builder that we may have had a miscommunication on this issue of the engine timing related to the idle dying when the cooling fans kick in or when it gets hot. I moved the initial to 18 a year ago to get it to idle when the fans kicked in. That seemed to have done it. I sent the dizzy back to them and the recurved it to have 38 total at 3000 rpm. When I got it back and re-installed it I set the initial to the 18 mark I made on the balancer. It turned out that i was supposed to set the timing to the white mark they scribed in originally that is 38 at 3000. I was told that if I set it to my mark, then the timing is severely retarded. they say set it to the white mark and the initial should be fine. So apparently the timing is retarded at the initial and is causing lots of issues for me.

http://www.clubcobra.com/forums/atta...1&d=1218554378

Any thoughts?

[ERA Chas]

14 initial and 38 total all in by 2600 is ideal for my 427. Set carb idle speed screw to best compromise for idle under electrical load.

[blykins]

Did you tell them that you wanted 20° of advance, all in by 3000?

I don't know why you need 18° of initial to keep the engine from dying when the fan kicks on. Couldn't you have just bumped the idle speed up a little higher? That's essentially what happened when you bumped the timing up anyway.

[For Paw]

Hey Brent, just to put things in the right light, there was never a question of how much timing advance in by 3000. it was built with 38 at 3000, but i could not get the idle to stick at 1000 rpm or even 1100 when things heated up. So Since no amount of carb tuning could compensate, I bumped up the initial to 18 from 12. It made a huge difference in idle. Then, I had the dizzy recurved, because what i had done is advance the entire timing curve by bumping the initial. All they did was recurve to allow for this much initial. The problem came when I re-installed the dist. and i thought i was timing to 18 at idle when i should have been timing to the 38 degree mark at 3000 and let the initial end up where ever was in relation to the new curve.

So I guess that is what I am asking-does this sound correct-set the timing for 38 at 3000 and the initial should take care of the idle issue now that it is higher. The bonus is it should also run cooler with more initial and i should have more power throughout the curve. The engine seems to like about 18 or so.

Thanks

[blykins]

I think I'm understanding you right this time...

Basically you're wanting 18 degrees initial with 38 degrees total....right? And you had them recurve the distributor to make that happen...but they're telling you to just time it by the total and not worry about the initial, right?

If you let it idle and put a timing light on it, what does it read at idle with the total at 38?

If this were my engine and I figured out that I wanted it to run at 18I and 38T, then I would tell them to curve it so that I got 20 degrees of advance and where I wanted it to be in at. Then I would just set the initial at idle, then check the total at that rpm.

[For Paw]

Yes, that's about it. Since I just figured out that i should be setting to 38 at 3000, I don't know yet what the initial is going to end up at. I have to get to that this weekend.

Thanks.

[Jerry Clayton]

and the difference is?????? 18+20 =38 38-20 =18 38-18 = 20

Its always prudent to check or set timing to ensure what the TOTAL is---that is what will cause DAMAGE

And then simply let the engine come to an idle and see what the initial is

[ERA Chas]

I'm amazed it will even hot start with 18. Does it run on when shut off?

[Jerry Clayton]

I always used to run my fords with 10* in the distributor(20 crank) and 18-20 at idle for 38-40 total , sometimes as high as 42 with 4 retard in high gear----did that by splitting the points sets and switching between primary, both, seconary contacts.Never had run on at those settings---