( I meant 402, not 4042) Ok, me again, asking for help. 
Pulled the Chevelle into the shop last night for some tuning and just giving it a once over before the track this weekend...
Put my hand vacuum pump on the dist. can, it required 16#s to pull in fully, so I adjusted it (3/32", fully counterclockwise) until the screw stopped, checked it again, now only took 12#s, however, it just didn't pull back as far, it lost some travel. So in essence, all it did was stop the amount of advance, not the amount of vacuum required. Yay Cheap POS dist.
My engine pulls roughly 15#s, so I figured this would be alright, get rid of some of my rough idle with full manifold vacuum hooked up. Nope. So, I popped the top of the 1406 off to check float level, it's perfect, fuel PSI is 5.5, stays steady, fuel pump is good, good plugs, wires, new (crappy POS Chinese piece of trash) Dist. Motor *supposedly* had about 10-12,000 miles on it when I bought it this spring, all mild street use, seldom driven, engine was build around 10 years ago.
So, after I checked all that stuff, I put my timing light on it, disconnected the vacuum, plugged the port, set my dist. to 18* initial, since my mechanical pulls in about 16*. Got the idle to be kind of ok, had it down to about 750rpm, then shut the car off, and it wouldn't restart. Rarr Rarr Rarr rarr WAY Too much initial, backed it off until it started, then did it some more until it started just the TINIEST bit against the starter, and measured the timing again, 1* at idle. Swell.
This tells me my balancer has probably slipped, or my mark is way off. Or my timing light is junk, or my cam is walking or my timing chain is shot or my junk distributor is junk.
Anyhow, as far as I can tell with my light, my mechanical starts at around 950-1000 RPM, and seemed to be all in by about 2,900...but my mark dances all over the place, probably about 10* or so. I understand that a HP cam will cause the idle to fluctuate, so the timing will do the same.
So, I guess what I'm asking is, where the hell do I start? I want to tune this bag of mixed nuts as well as I can, without changing any major parts this week, but I can't get a baseline established! I can't set my carb properly because my timing is whacked, I can't figure out what RPM to set the engine at so I CAN set the timing, my mark is all over the map. I have it set so the car seems to run OK, but it always seems like I'm leaving some on the table.
In my other post, Everyone made it clear that I obviously need to change some major engine components to get this thing to run strong, I'm fine with that. What I'm wondering is, is it so far out of whack that I can't even tune it properly? Doesn't seem like that radical of a combo..
Just frustrated is all. You've been there!
Things I know I need to check ASAP--true TDC, so I can establish a proper timing mark, I'm also going to scribe a line on both the inner and outer rings of my balancer to see if it's slipping at all. Make sure I don't have any vacuum leaks. And I know it's not just my timing light, although that could be an issue, because the Tach in the car bounces in time with the timing light, no steady RPM until about 1,100 RPM. Thanks again, in advance. Justin
Pulled the Chevelle into the shop last night for some tuning and just giving it a once over before the track this weekend...
Put my hand vacuum pump on the dist. can, it required 16#s to pull in fully, so I adjusted it (3/32", fully counterclockwise) until the screw stopped, checked it again, now only took 12#s, however, it just didn't pull back as far, it lost some travel. So in essence, all it did was stop the amount of advance, not the amount of vacuum required. Yay Cheap POS dist.
My engine pulls roughly 15#s, so I figured this would be alright, get rid of some of my rough idle with full manifold vacuum hooked up. Nope. So, I popped the top of the 1406 off to check float level, it's perfect, fuel PSI is 5.5, stays steady, fuel pump is good, good plugs, wires, new (crappy POS Chinese piece of trash) Dist. Motor *supposedly* had about 10-12,000 miles on it when I bought it this spring, all mild street use, seldom driven, engine was build around 10 years ago.
So, after I checked all that stuff, I put my timing light on it, disconnected the vacuum, plugged the port, set my dist. to 18* initial, since my mechanical pulls in about 16*. Got the idle to be kind of ok, had it down to about 750rpm, then shut the car off, and it wouldn't restart. Rarr Rarr Rarr rarr WAY Too much initial, backed it off until it started, then did it some more until it started just the TINIEST bit against the starter, and measured the timing again, 1* at idle. Swell.
This tells me my balancer has probably slipped, or my mark is way off. Or my timing light is junk, or my cam is walking or my timing chain is shot or my junk distributor is junk.
Anyhow, as far as I can tell with my light, my mechanical starts at around 950-1000 RPM, and seemed to be all in by about 2,900...but my mark dances all over the place, probably about 10* or so. I understand that a HP cam will cause the idle to fluctuate, so the timing will do the same.
So, I guess what I'm asking is, where the hell do I start? I want to tune this bag of mixed nuts as well as I can, without changing any major parts this week, but I can't get a baseline established! I can't set my carb properly because my timing is whacked, I can't figure out what RPM to set the engine at so I CAN set the timing, my mark is all over the map. I have it set so the car seems to run OK, but it always seems like I'm leaving some on the table.
In my other post, Everyone made it clear that I obviously need to change some major engine components to get this thing to run strong, I'm fine with that. What I'm wondering is, is it so far out of whack that I can't even tune it properly? Doesn't seem like that radical of a combo..
Just frustrated is all. You've been there!
Things I know I need to check ASAP--true TDC, so I can establish a proper timing mark, I'm also going to scribe a line on both the inner and outer rings of my balancer to see if it's slipping at all. Make sure I don't have any vacuum leaks. And I know it's not just my timing light, although that could be an issue, because the Tach in the car bounces in time with the timing light, no steady RPM until about 1,100 RPM. Thanks again, in advance. Justin
