I have a 72 maverick drag car, It's got a mildly built 302 and I'm trying to set the timing for maximum torque off the line. What do you recommend for advance. I had it at 20 degrees advance then I went to 12 and it seems like its harder to spin the tires. Any suggestions? Does anyone have any experience tuning timing?
Im not sure what your doing or what you setup is but on my old mild 306 i had a short timing curve with base @ 20 and total of around 36 worked awesome for footbrake racing on my setup. But, ultimately id say trial and error will be the best way to see what works best.
you need to determine the advance curve of the distributor before you can determine a base timeing curve. i sugest with it set at 12 degrees you need to check what the timing advances to every 500 rpm up to 3500 rpm. you will want to have total timeing at 3500 rpm set to 32 degrees. then let it idle. check the timeing at idle. use that number as your base. i sugest run the car once. then advance the timing 2 degrees and see if it goes faster or slower. if it goes slower then retard the timeing 4 degrees and rerun it. you could take the distributor apart, change the springs to softer springs and even lower the mount of advance in the distributor so you can have more initial advance.
When you set your timing at 3500 rpm be sure to have the vacuum advance disconnected and plugged - and remember to reconnect it when you finish.
