Hello! As you can tell from the ti​​​​tle I have a 1974 lincon 460 that needs timed right. I've heard of setting it at 4 degrees retarded and 14 degrees advanced. But what would you guys set it to? the spark plugs are gaped at 41, should I gap them more or less?

 

You should ask this question in the 385 forum. Those guys will definitely help you out!

 

Actually I am asking them right now but haven't had a response in a while so figured I could get opinions from both forms

 

Stock on my '77 460 is 12 degrees BTDC. I have an RV cam in mine though, so I run 14 degrees BTDC.

 

The initial ignition timing on my '76 460 is also 12 degrees BTDC. The original plugs were ARF-42 gapped at .042-.046 inches. That's on a Duraspark II system.

 

You see various posts because not only do different people find different results as to what works best with their combination, but even from the factory a different year of the same engine, or a different vehicle application with the same engine might have all had a different factory setting.
As well as the distributors themselves being different across different product lines, with more or less vacuum and/or mechanical advance available in total.

And a lot depends not only on how you drive it, but on what other modifications you might have made. Including removing all the smog stuff and changing how the vacuum advance gets it's signal.
So my advice is the same as always. Start by setting it to the factory specification, then play with it extensively when you're driving it. Play with advancing it more and more until it's no longer right, then back off a degree or three. Whatever works for you is best.

As for the gap, what ignition are you running and what other modifications have you made to the engine?
Running an EGR? Dual or single diaphragm vacuum advance can? Stock carburetor and exhaust?
Stuff like that.

Gap could end up being anything from .035" to .045" and anything in-between. Depends on whatcha got.

Good luck.

Paul

 

Im running a 12v electric ignition 908 from Napa, it's a duel diaphragm vacuum advance but for some reason the vacuum tube on the side has never been hooked up, the carb is a edlbrock 1411, and the exhaust are hooker headers. From what I can tell there is no EGR also no any other engine modifications that I would know of.

 

With the side hose disconnected it sounds like many, or all of the "smog related" vacuum hoses might have been deleted to simplify working on it. And the truck itself may not have had an EGR originally, but I think all passenger cars had them by '73/'74, so theoretically when the swap was made the EGR system was removed.
Does it look to still have a functioning PCV system installed? There would be the PCV valve itself in one valve cover, and the other would have either a filtered cap (aftermarket) or an elbow fitting and a hose running up to the air cleaner housing (factory) or some variation on that theme.
And the valve must always be plumbed to full manifold vacuum near the center plenum, rather than to a single intake runner. The brake booster can go to a single runner, but the PCV needs to go to a common area. Which is why you see them for the most part hooked to the base of the carburetor, spacer, or common port on the manifold.

Back to the vacuum advance, you can play around with both types of vacuum to see which way works best for your particular engine. If you're not familiar, that's either ported vacuum, or full vacuum. Which one depends on the port location on the carburetor..
I have almost always had better luck running a simple single-diaphragm advance can with ported vacuum. So there is zero vacuum at the hose at idle, but immediately rises to full (or almost full) when you push on the throttle.
But some engines just run better on full vacuum.
Does not matter that you have a dual-diaphragm can with only one hose. Just leave the hose on the outer one and leave the side/inner one open.

When messing around with both types of vacuum, the worst that you will run into most likely is that you have to fiddle with the idle settings at the carburetor to compensate. And of course you may (probably will in fact) have to mess with your base timing settings again.
Or, when in doubt and you don't have a timing light, just mess with the adjustment until you like the way it runs. But a timing light is a great diagnosing tool to have in your kit too.

If the carburetor was simply installed as-is out of the box, you may have to fiddle with jetting as well. Hard to tell of course, and it might be perfect because if it was too rich out of the box, the headers and free breathing exhaust will compensate at least somewhat.

Good luck.

Paul

 

Yes sorry forgot to mention that all smog equipment has been removed the PCV system is still installed. After setting the timing to 14 BTDC the engine runs very poorly then dies I'll send you a picture of the engine.