[Fot] Electronic Distributor and Total Advance

[Tylerpthompson]

Thanks Tim.

I do have a timing light to set total advance.  It has a dial gage to set the
timing I want.  I believe there are other timing issues I need to get smarter
on.

Sounds like I need to plot an advance curve to see where full advance comes on
and then possibly play with spring rates.  Will learn a lot in that process.

Jim Gray also sent me some great info on spring rates and methods for
determining total advance versus static timing.   So with a little reading and
trial and error I can hopefully get this dialed in.

Ty

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 7, 2012, at 8:53 PM, "Tim Murphy" <timmurph at fastbytes.com> wrote:

> Do you have a timing light that you can punch in the advance and with that
> feature you can see exactly what advance you are actually running?  I have
> an older Snap-on one that if I punch the advance or retard buttons I can
> watch and see at 3000 RPM, for example, when the timing mark is lined up on
> the pointer.  The amount of advance is I have punched in then shows in a
> display.  I got this from my brother when he retired from his service
> business.  I'm pretty sure these are now available at auto parts stores for
> a heck of a lot less than the Snap-on variety.
>    With somebody in the car working the accelerator and reading the
> tach, you can plot your advance curve.  Very handy.
>
> Tim
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: fot-bounces at autox.team.net [mailto:fot-bounces at autox.team.net] On
> Behalf Of T Thompson
> Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2012 4:46 PM
> To: 'FOT List'
> Subject: [Fot] Electronic Distributor and Total Advance
>
> I recently purchased a True Spark Programmable Distributor.  My Mallory
Dual
> Point had so much play at the top of the shaft (thanks to Mark Eden for
> noticing this) that the point gap and dwell was very erratic at high RPMs.
> So
> I went with the True Spark that Mark had bought as well from BP Northwest.
>
> My question has to deal with the bushings included with the distributor to
> adjust total advance.  We obviously can't do static timing and at idle it
is
> likely there is some degree of advance occuring already (I can't idle down
> to 500 rpms with the cams we run).  For now, I have installed the
> distributor
> with no bushings and set the timing.  That is to supposed to give me 30
> degrees of total advance.  It starts missing at about 5000 rpms.  My next
> step
> was to try retarding it more to see if that helps.
>
> My question is how to
> determine which bushing to use, if any, to give me the best performance.  I
> don't have a dyno or a racetrack in my back yard, so I was wondering if
> anyone
> else is running this distributor, and which bushing they may have used.
> Total
> advance is configurable from 18 to 30.
>
> I was thinking of just getting as
> low of idle as possible and seeing what the difference is advance is
between
> that and my preferred total advance, but then I thought someone else on
this
> group likely runs the same distributor and may get me closer.  Bought the
> distributor from BPN. Part number is 41427HP.
>
> The good thing now is that
> when I do set the timing, the mark on the pulley does not fluctuate (at
> all).
> Before it was hopping all over the place.
>
> Thanks in advance for your help.
>
> Ty
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