Troy,remember,if you just set your TOTAL TIMING to 36 deg without 1st setting your initial timing the initial will very likely be retarded,that looses power,wastes fuel,and causes motor to run a little hotter too.
What happens is if your dist has approx 25 deg mechanical then at 36 total your only left with approx 11 deg initial which is approx 7 deg retarded as most perf cams require approx 16-18 deg initial.
If your running any kind of aftermarket perf cam you need to 1st dial in approx 16-18 deg initial which is done with idle low like 550-600 rpms so mech adv does not start to avtivate and upset the initial setting,vac adv unhooked & plugged too.
After you do that then tighten the dist & recheck timing to ensure it did not move after tightening,if it changed reset & check again.
Then leave the vac adv plugged and now check the total by reving the motor to see what the highest timing reading you get is & at what rpm too.
You may need to get a timing tape to hook on your harm ballencer as your stock timing tap only goes to approx 16 deg for reading initial timing.
With 16-18 initial your total could easily be over 36-38 if your running a stock gm dist and in that case you need to pull the dist and have the mech adv recurved/limited to approx 20 deg to run with 16-18 initial for a 36-38 total.
If you dont do it this way your leaving a lot of perf on table by setting the timing only for a total without 1st getting the initial set correctly and then getting the mech timing curve set correctly to achieve the 36-38 deg total.
Scott
What happens is if your dist has approx 25 deg mechanical then at 36 total your only left with approx 11 deg initial which is approx 7 deg retarded as most perf cams require approx 16-18 deg initial.
If your running any kind of aftermarket perf cam you need to 1st dial in approx 16-18 deg initial which is done with idle low like 550-600 rpms so mech adv does not start to avtivate and upset the initial setting,vac adv unhooked & plugged too.
After you do that then tighten the dist & recheck timing to ensure it did not move after tightening,if it changed reset & check again.
Then leave the vac adv plugged and now check the total by reving the motor to see what the highest timing reading you get is & at what rpm too.
You may need to get a timing tape to hook on your harm ballencer as your stock timing tap only goes to approx 16 deg for reading initial timing.
With 16-18 initial your total could easily be over 36-38 if your running a stock gm dist and in that case you need to pull the dist and have the mech adv recurved/limited to approx 20 deg to run with 16-18 initial for a 36-38 total.
If you dont do it this way your leaving a lot of perf on table by setting the timing only for a total without 1st getting the initial set correctly and then getting the mech timing curve set correctly to achieve the 36-38 deg total.
Scott
