My 82 F-150 has been performing rather poorly, and wouldn't even tackle a slight incline climbing a hill.

I finally got aggrivated at it and adjusted the timing, but the first time i did it, i set it too far retarded and it was even more of a pig and stalled when i backed it out of the driveway.

I advanced it some and now lets say it'll lay down a patch of rubber at least 60 ft long, and get crazy sideways if i stay on it.

And the engine really isn't modified much, stock 1bbl carb, some type of RV cam. 2.47-ish gears (according to my rear end ID tag.)
Stock Exhaust manifold with stock piping and cat (its about to be ditched.)

I await the funds to swap on a 2bbl carb and the EFI exhaust manifolds...then whoo boy, i might look into a little N20 and a 240 head swap, fully ported & polished....

Needless to say, I'm Very Pleased!

 

Sounds like a good investment I'm concidering installing similar mods on my 300 as well. My motor is built identical to yours but I'm running 3.08 gears with a locker in the rear.

 

I have a 92 EFI and i wanna lay down rubber too!!! so can i advance timing too or won't this do anything will it do any thing at all for me? i have i beleive 3.08's. all stock 4x4
hey PKUPMAN82 i live in Grant u know where that is?

 

Advancing the timing on your 92 shouldn't be too hard, although, theres no telling what the computer will think of it.

By disconnecting the SPOUT connector and bumping the timing, and reconnecting the Spout plug, it should in theory have advanced the timing some.

But, then again, the computer might not like this and not respond to it too well...

HTH.

 

Straight 6's
I yeah I know where its at I'm not home right now. I am in the US Marine Corps living in Okinawa Japan. Any ways yes you should be able to play with your timing but the comp. might protest a little bit. My suggestion would be to advance it out a little bit at a time just to see how far you can take it before it starts to ping or run rough. The only problem with advancing really far is it takes away from your low end torque that you need when the truck is loaded down. I would suggest installing a better flowing exhaust system ( Flowmaster 40 with 2.25 duals on mine) , cold air intake, and a hotter coil ( Accel HEI on mine). You could install headers but I heard the split manifold on the EFI 300s flow nearly as good as headers. More than likely your truck has 3.08 gears especially if it has a manual transmission.

 

As of now, my truck is sitting in the front yard, without a Carb.

It finally bit the dust, and i was getting extremely poor MPG with it.

It was running so rich that it looked like i was burning wood in the bed of my truck...black smoke everywhere.

The truck was run like that for quite awhile before i got it and solved the problem, albeit temporarily.

Guess the next thing to go is gutting the cat. If i had some extra pipe... i'd just get rid of it and have nothin' but the muffler.

Hopefully i get my hotrod back soon!

 

so how exactly would i go about advancing my timing. i know i don't have a timing chain i have two sets of gears (or doesn't that matter for what i'm doing). whats a SPOUT what does it lok like and what does it do. on e more question when you advance yuo timing what EXACTLy are you doing?

greatly appreciate it

 

so how exactly would i go about advancing my timing. i know i don't have a timing chain i have two sets of gears (or doesn't that matter for what i'm doing). whats a SPOUT what does it lok like and what does it do. on e more question when you advance yuo timing what EXACTLy are you doing?

greatly appreciate it

 

The sticker on the radiator housing of my '82 is way worn... so I don't know what the stock setting should be for timing advance. I just set it "by ear" like I've always done. My "chittlins" manual goes on for about a page on HOW to set the timing without ever saying WHAT to set it at, much less if I should bump in 1 degree per additional thousand feet of altitude ( I'd add at least 6). I've searched but can't find any other mention of ignition timing, just a vague reference to " IF it is 5 degrees" - "set it " this way....

I havn't toasted a valve yet, so I must still have good hearing. (Or is that NOT a danger with "too much" advance in the "BIG -6"??)

- Still, it would be nice to know where the timing SHOULD be set! And what if you drove a lot at say - 9,000' - it seems like there ought to be an upper limit....

 

I set mine about 2.5-3 degrees advanced tonight. Big difference. Thing comes alive. Its able to bring up the revs a lot faster in 3rd and 4th gear. I love my truck.

 

broncr
You can probably find your emissions sticker here, but with a high-mileage carbed engine, you're probably better off setting the timing by vacuum gauge.

 

Straight 6's: The spout connector is a little small square box, that should be right beside your distributor, in the wiring, about an inch or so square.

Its got a little clip that slips up inside it, pull this out and start the truck, if you've got a timing light then thats great. If you've got a vac guage then thats even better.

(Be sure you put that little plastic clip back, or you'll have heaps of trouble from the computer!)

With the vac guage i'd tune the timing for the most vaccum you could get... more power, and a more efficient engine all in one.

Timing light, thats just the usual.... I don't have one, so i dunno.

I timed mine by ear and disconnected the vac advance and plugged it..

Much better, it actually got a little better economy and didn't make that horrendous clattering sound these engines are known for.

Thats when i made the post about the truck laying rubber down for 60ft.

This thing is a wild machine, provided you do the modifications to it.

IF yours was a carbed engine, i wouldn't recommend running around without the vac advance, it hurts your fuel economy and part throttle response.

But since yours is EFI, then i'd just bump the timing up a few degrees...but be careful you don't get spark knock or ping....thats too much timing, and usually described as a clattering noise. (my problem, too much adv.)

Hope this helps

-Tim-

 

thanks for responding,

Would you set a LOW mileage (20k) engine with a vacuum? (It's only the truck that's 21 - legal drinking age!!!) As I said, I've been an "ear" man (and sometimes/usually timing light). I'll read up on using a vacuum.

 

I like to set it with a timing light first. Then I take it for a ride and adjust it along the way until I am satisfied with the performance, which basically means I can peal rubber into third gear.

 

broncr
On a new engine, I'd go with the recommended setting off the emissions sticker, assuming everything else is stock. If you have some aftermarket performance stuff on it, I don't know.