302 timing questions

Thank you for your judgements. Your ignorence is you down fall. You have to go a lot longer than 10 years to catch up.

 

I care.
10 years experience vs what?
hot air and disrespect?
My original post wasn't aimed at you.
I simply stated that 6* BTDC isn't always attainable, you try and say I don't know what I'm talking about.
Keep your experience. I haven't asked for your help, nor will I.

btw, my IGNORANCE has shown your lack of spelling skills or grammar.

my downfall?
not expecting you to be an ass and get defensive over nothing.

 

Young fellow, I just wanted you to see that i'm not going to take your nonsense and not defend myself.
There are many people that have the Chilton's book on these cars. Page 27 is the tuneup chart for the engines and it shows 6 degrees before top center at 750 rpm plus the foote notes. Now you tell all them there wrong too and also tell Ford motor company there wrong too.
As far as not asking me, this is an open forum and I will answer if I want to, the same as you.

 

74Merc; It appears that if it won't run at 6*, you may have the distrubuter off by a tooth or so. Being carefull of the oil pump rod, set the engine to #1 tdc, and check. If it is off, pull the distributer up and reseat it. Easy, and a good check. Also, it may be a bad spring on the mechanical advance. Check the lower plate on the distributer and see. Easy checks, but will tell you what is up with the timing. Also, the carb can cause it to chug, even if the timing is correct.

Earl

 

Timing

Ever hear of Smokey Yunick? If so you're much older than any Maverick. If not,Smokey,a native American, was chief mechanic for the 8 ball car of winning NASCAR driver Fireball Roberts. Smokey also did a Q and A column in PM mag. His published ideas on timing were: There were to many variables-fuel/carbs/trans/diff/wheels etc. for a one size fits all timing. The Smokey method used the engine as an audio tuning device. 1-Drive car up long incline at speed to load engine in highest gear. If no ping,advance timing one notch. 2- Repeat process until ping is heard. 3- back one notch. Then you have optimal timing for your individual car (maximum advance without pre-detonation). Very old-school,no lights, no numbers. It worked well for me in the sixties. Would it still be viable today? Whadda ya think?
Be cool!
T-Mav

 

T-MAV, sure is still valid. The best dam garage in town was pretty smart. Loved the story about the time they made him tear down the Hudson engine while everybody was watching and he still got that illegal cam by them. I laughed myself silly. Pulled a little of that sorta thing a time or two.
On modern FI/ECM controlled engines, it may not work as well because of the super timing controls, but is still usefull at times.

 

Smokey

And his shop was right down by the Daytone Speedway, in Daytona Beach. It hadn't changed much in all the years he had run it. Things he did applied to all cars, not just Chevy. He did a lot of R&D for Ford also.

 

yea, I've heard of Smokey Yunich.
Don't have to be older than the Mav's to know of him, just be educated.
I've set my timing by that method, works good for performance, but it made my engine blow oil worse.

Earl, you can adjust timing by being off a tooth or two.
If you don't get low/high enough, pull the dist and reseat it.
regardless of tooth, 6* is 6*.

I've checked my balancer in the past, it aint perfect, but its off by no more than a degree.
#1 at TDC by pencil method, 0 on my timing mark.
it might not have been perfect TDC, but it was close enough.

by George I think he's got it!

 

wow...alot happened in one day!!!!

 

74Merc; you are correct...that by itself may not be enough to stall the engine. But, if there is something else amiss, it may be enough to make it run bad or stop altogether. I guess it is a logical progression, find the problems one by one, and as you correct them, it will run better.

Earl

 

I think on mine it is probably compression.
8:1 on the 74, plus retarded cam.
still gets about 150 PSI, all 8 are within 10%.
I'm not worried about it.
it runs great for an original motor, it is not the only one I've seen that won't run at 6* BTDC.
the sticker on the valve cover says 12* @ 650 in drive, 10* @ 800 in neutral.
if it calls for 12* @650, Ford sets the timing conservative, if not low, 6* doesn't sound possible on this engine anyway.
I can tell you something else about it.
She will hardly crank on cold mornings with 93 octane.
basic, flood the hell out of it, she *might* hit, then it'll take a good 10 minutes to get running without a stutter.
87 she'll hit on the first time and run.
nearly everything I've run into on this engine can be explained by the low compression.

 

In the immortal words of Rodney King...

"Can't we all just get along?"