Four years ago I let a guy work on my truck and he said he advanced the timing a little. Well I've drove it for all these years and the only issue I ever had was slow hard starting after it was warmed up and I kill it for a few minutes. Well I got a timing light for Christmas so I decided I was finally gonna back it down some. So when I got out there to check it today, I had it warmed up and idleing in gear at 650 rpms. I put the timing light on it and it was showing like 27 BTDC?? I tried to turn it down and when I got below 20 it started to run real slow and sounded rough. The engine is from an 83 grand marquis but the balancer is one I bought from ebay. On the original one the rubber started to squish out and looked cracked so I bought a new 50 oz balancer and put it on. That was only about a year ago, so the outer ring shouldn't have slipped. Did any 302's have the pointer in a lower position on the passenger side?

i think I'm going to verify TDC and 0 on the balancer tomorrow.

But all that said I'm kinda scared I'm gonna start messing with it and end up causing more problems than just a hard slow start when it's hot, because it runs great right now.


Any suggestions? Besides verifing TDC and 0. Or should I just adjust some of the advance it's showing out of it and call it good?

Thanks,

EDIT: The post below reminded me, I do have the vacuum advance disconnected and plugged.

 

The vacuum advance should be disconnected and the hose plugged when checking the initial timing. Make sure you do this.

 

So your timing light was showing 27deg adv with vacuum removed fromt he distributor? If so it's a wonder the motor would start at all so I think you need to verify TDC location on the balancer and if it doesn't correspond to the pointer position that's no big deal you can simply install something(ex: a wire on a timing cover bolt) to reference the correct TDC location for timing purposes. Just be aware that the piston comes to TDC twice in the cycle and you need to be on the compression stroke to set this reference, you can test for this by removing the spark plug, place a finger over the hole and crank the motor by hand, when you feel air being pushed out you know the piston is on the compression stroke. Now use a small piece of wire in the plug hole to feel for exact TDC. Also note that #1 cylinder on these Fords is passenger side front.

 

Actually it doesnt matter if its on compression or exhaust stroke, the cam and distributor may be 180 deg out but the mark you make on the crank would be in the same spot either way.

 

I'll check it when I get home this evening. I don't see how it would have run so good set up that way either. I've been driving it at pretty much 100 miles every two weeks for over 4 years now on 87 octane and the only issue was the slow start when it was warmed up. If I hadn't gotten the timing light I probably would have left it alone cause it wasn't that big of an issue, just a little embarrassing at the dump when restarting after unloading. I never felt like it wasn't going to crank, I knew it would it was just turning over slow.

 

It was dead on right TDC with the timing mark on 0. So it really was that far advanced. I reset the timing to 12 BTDC and had to up the idle screw on the carb to bring the idle up to 650 rpms in gear which put it at a little over 1000 in park. That sucker fired right up first try every time I killed it after letting it idle at temp. Now I just hope it's gonna fire up and idle in the morning. LOL it may give me some issue since it's gonna be 21 degrees tonight. Thanks for the help.

 

Ok, I went out this morning and the temp was 25 degrees. It fired up on the first try so I was very happy but as it was idling it would pop every now and again. Not a loud backfire POW but just a little pop. I would describe it like a hiccup. It didn't do that last night the whole time I had it running so I'm guessing it has to do with the engine be cold.

My carb is a Holley 500 CFM two barrel with a manual choke. Maybe a choke adjustment needs to be made?

Any ideas?

 

in park with the engine warm you should be at 650rpms. not sure why its running at 1000rpms in park that is to high.

holley's are known for having powervalve issues. when was the last time you rebuilt that carb?

 

It's never been rebuilt, it's only four years old and doesn't have that many miles on it. But, I did change the accelerator pump diaphragm and fuel bowl gaskets last year because the diaphragm was cracked and was leaking gas on to the top of the intake.

 

and you have checked for vacum leaks correct

 

No I haven't checked for any vacuum leaks because it was running fine before I backed the timing down to where it was supposed to be. Would the timing being so far advanced have hidden a vacuum leak for 4 years? I'm not saying that as a smart a$$ comment that is a real question.

EDIT: I have a vacuum gauge in my cab and it holds rock steady, either in gear at 17 or in park at 22.

 

Ok I went home for lunch today and I cranked it up. It started on the first crank and idled great this time, no popping sound no hiccups?? I let it sit there and run for about 20 minutes. The temp outside is 38 degrees now. I did look under the truck and noticed an exhaust leak at the collector. I could see the vapor puffing out from between the two flanges. So I'm gonna replace the collector gasket this weekend.

I think I'm just gonna mount my A/C compressor back in place and see how it drives.

 

This is just extra information of what I had to do tonight. I went to put the compressor back in place and the vacuum canister was too far right! So I had to undo the hold down clamp an reclock the dizzy!! So now it's all good, I got plenty of room for the compressor. The whole time tonight while I had it running it never backfired or popped again. So I'm not gonna worry about it. Hopefully it'll be okay, I was planning on test driving it tonight but after the ordeal with the dizzy I didn't have time. I'll drive it tomorrow and/or Saturday.