Timing

[John inNH]

I was finishing up a tune-up on the '75 when I tried to check my timing. At first, I could not find the timing mark on the balancer. I finally found it, but it is nowhere near the timing tab. When looking at the front of the engine, the timing tab is at the 1 o-clock to 2 o-clock position, but the timing mark is between 11 and 12 o-clock. Is this too advanced, or not advanced enough? And which way should I turn the distributor to adjust it correctly? For that matter, what is the best timing for performance? I know what the decal says, but is there a better number?

John

[73431Cutlass]

Did you have the vacumm advance plugged up? If this is getting vacumm it will show the timing mark way off the timing mark. Pull it and plug it and check again, then look at your sticker for the timing specs. I think it is 20 degrees at 1100 rpm if my brain serves me right. If not someone else will have it and chime in with it. Been sooo long since my 350 used to my 425 specs.....

[ragz442]

What Steve said, if you didn't plug the vacuum line to the vac advance, your mark will be way off. The distributor rotates counterclockwise on an Olds. You could go a couple degrees advance for better acceleration/performance as long as your not detonating [spark knock]. For performance engines, Ignition timing is a very vital part of a tune-up, you have your base timing and total timing. I would invest in a dial-back timing light and read up on mechanical advance if your interested in waking it up.

[GT73]

Another trick is to simply increase the timing (max it out) until you hear engine pinging. Then turn it back until the pinging goes away.

Running high octane gas (super) is crucial on performance engines. Make sure the car is properly tuned before advancing the timing.