Hey fella's,
Here is the deal, I pulled the engine out to change the oil pump. "It works great btw!" Well I put the engine back in, and I am trying to time it. First I tried to set it to 4 degrees, well that just made the carb pop when a little gas was put to it. So I read here on the forums and some say around 10 degrees runs a lot better, but when going down the road it just gives out on me after so much acceleration and doesn't have much power.
Maybe too much?
Any Ideas?
I was running perfect before hand. So I'm not doing something right!
I'm carberator dumb also. "It shouldn't need tuning, but who knows?" I just don't understand how to adjust one. I have tried many times, just cant do it for some reason. So maybe someone can can explain it to me.
Please help?
396 engine 325, cam and internals are close to orginal specs. So no bigger cam or anything like that.
Its a 4 spd. with a rebuilt holley carb.
I can get a mechanic over to fix it, but I want to try and learn this beast.

Thanks

Oh and it has points for the dist.

Make sure your vacuum advance is disconnected when you check the timing.

If it's really that close to stock, I would still advance it further, to say 16° and see how it runs.

After that, time to hit the carb - you want the idle set to give you the most vacuum, just play with the idle screws until you're there.

Obviously, that's on the simplified side, but it'll get you started and should get it running well enough for the rest of it.

Yup,Like Mark stated,even a mild aftermarket cam will need approx 16-18 deg base timing,do that and your motor will come back to life for sure.

Look for approx 36-38 total.

Scott

ok I will try that and see what happens. Try to do it later tonight.
Thanks

Ok now I'm stumped! I was looking at the post
http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=270079
and saw the link for a video on how to set your timing "very informative"
http://www.setyourtiming.com/video.html
ok now here is my problem. I have my timing set to this.
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f98/stingrayiii/timingtapefigA.jpg
From what Xtreme70SS396 told me to set it.
But it idols ok, but when you give it some gas it dies.
But wait!
If i set it to this setting
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f98/stingrayiii/timingtapefigB.jpg
Then it runs ok and I can drive it, but it has no power what so ever.
Ok now wait.
According to the video the when gas is applied to the engine the timing should go up in this direction
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f98/stingrayiii/timingtape2.jpg
But mine goes in the opposite direction like this!
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f98/stingrayiii/timingtape3.jpg
WTF? Ok I am so confused right now. Something must be wrong with my distributor?:confused::confused::confused:


This is strange.

Hope you guys can help me out!

P.s. This car is cursed by the way!

If yours goes in that direction, you have your timing set on the wrong side of zero. Advance the timing so it's 16-18° before 0 and you should be fine.

I have tried it on both sides of zero, and it still goes in that direction? Could the weights in the dist. be off?

Do Exactly what Mark stated.

Nic,no disrespect intended but you obviuosly are having issues trying to understand how to properly set the intial-base and total timing.

Are you setting idle low enough(600-650 rpm) to ensure mech adv in dist isn't partially activate upsetting base timing setting?

Did you unhook & plug vac adv when checking & setting base/total timing?

Suggestion,You should find a fellow t/c member that lives in your area to take 5-10 mins to give you a hand getting it set properly & to show you how to doit.

From what you describe you don't have much experience when it comes to setting timing which is fine and we all have to start somewhere. But if you can find a local t/c member to help you out for 5-10 mins it will save you/us countless emails and possibly hrs of back and forth here when its all said & done when somone can simply show you in litterally 5-10 mins how to properly set base/total timing .

They could also help chk to ensure you have propely installed the timing tape and also that maybe that the outter ring on the harm ballancer hasn't slipped,etc

With an aftermarket perf cam 16-18 deg base-initial timing is a good place to start along with 36-38 total.

Good luck

Scott

I appreciate all that you guys are doing for me. Yes this is my first time by myself. Sure looks easy enough watching someone else do it. Like I said, I do have a guy coming out to look at it next week, just wanted to see if I could tackle it first. I guess I will just have to wait till next week. I will keep you guys informed. Thank you again, for your advice.

So anyway I changed the vacuum advance out, and set it back to 16 degrees. it runs like a champ now.
I just wanted to say thanks to everyone that helped me out. "Xtreme70SS396"
Ready to roll now!