setting ignition timing

[adallak]

Ladies and gentlemen! I hope everybody enjoys the weekend. It's so nice here in North-East PA!

I am going to switch to 87 octane and would like to set ignition timing at recomended 6 deg instead of 10 deg I have currently. I am pretty sure the timing is still factory set. I do not have a timing light and want to try to accomplish this task without one. In this regard I have three questions:

1. If I change from 10 deg to say, 6 deg does it mean I should rotate the distributor by 4 degrees ( I mean real angle of rotation).

2. If so, what direction I should rotate clockwise or otherwise?

3. Is the hold-down nut easily accessable without special wrench if I remove the airfilter box?

I have plenty of laser sources and laser mirrors to rotate the distributor and watch the actual angle of rotation.

Thanks in advance for info.

Edited July 3, 2005 by adallak

[franey]

THE DEGREES ARE ON THE HARMONIC BALANCER, YOU HAVE TO HAVE A TIMING LIGHT. TO DO THIS CORRECTLY.

[Matt]

Hi To All. It is very nice tonight here in North NJ also. I hope all have a safe weekend. I second the statement that you should use a timing light to set your distributor. I play around with my distributor also, I run Sunoco 94 and experimented with that to. At first I was told the timing setting is only a base setting and the PCM will take over from there. I found that to be incorrect because of the difference I feel going from 6 to 10 on the balencer mark. You need to be accurate here, so try to get a light somehow if you can. Take care.

[Ranger]

I would not fool with without a timing light.

[Scotty]

Adallak, I have a timing light, if you want I can send it to you, Mike

[adallak]

Adallak, I have a timing light, if you want I can send it to you, Mike

Mike, thank you! I can get a timing light any time. I just wanted to know how the degrees on the balancer are corelated to the actyal rotation of the distributer. It looks like it is not that simple. OK . I'll take care of timing with traditional means - timing light etc.

Thanks, and enjoy the weekend!

[mike5514]

There might be a way to set your timing useing a vacumn gauge. Years ago if we did not have a timing light we would hook up a vacumn gauge and by adjusting the idle speed and turning the distributor to get the highest reading on the gauge we would then back off the timing untill the reading dropped one inch. We would road test by going up a hill, a very slight ping was acceptable. In the computer controlled cars you dont have to mess with the idle speed just the timing. Mike

[johnnydone]

i dont know if this will work on a n set balancer to the degrees that u want it unhook #1 plug wire turn on ignition do not start car rotate dist till # 1 sparks

tighten dist (its called static timing if it works on a n its very accurate)

[KHE]

You must put the ECM into "Set Timing Mode" by jumping the A&B terminals on the ALDL connector. Then use a timing light pointed at the balancer to verify the timing as you rotate the distributor. The angle in the balancer does not correlate to rotation of the distributor.

[adallak]

Thaks guys for the replies! It appears where are nontraditional ways to change the timing!

The distributor turns at one half crank speed....so....one degree of distributor rotation is worth two degrees of spark advance at the crank. If you wanted to retard the timing 4 degress at the crank (which is how spark advance is always refered to ) then you will need to turn the distributor 2 degrees.

Bbobinsky, as usual, you did not leave any question unanswered. This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you.

Today I made some 250 miles roundtrip to NYC and frankly did not notice much difference with 87 in the tank. Excellent power, and 26.1 MPG! The same knock at partial throttle when hot (EGR valve is still not replaced <_ that it. i probably will do nothing with timing at this point despite can rotate the distributor accurately a degree or two using laser beam reflected from mirror placed on for referrence without any problem.>

[bigjayzway]

Let me tell ya, I would NOT attempt the task at hand without a timing light. I seen the experience first hand, and it caused more trouble than it was worth!

[Cman]

My timing is off, what are the process steps for setting the timing on a 1995 Fleetwood Brougham 5.7L engine

[BodybyFisher]

22 hours ago, Cman said:

My timing is off, what are the process steps for setting the timing on a 1995 Fleetwood Brougham 5.7L engine

See KHE's post above