Hello, this is my first post to FTE so I’ll start with a little introduction. My name is Earl I’m 16 and currently working on getting a 1965 F-350 with a touch of 1964 parts fixed up to be my daily driver. It has a 352 with an NP-435, I was told that it originally had a dump body and belonged to the DOT. From what I have found it appears that during the 1990s it was used as a farm truck, I assume that at some point during that time the front end was damaged. The front body panels are a combo of 64/65 and the driver side door is off a custom cab. I’m the kind of person that doesn’t care as much about looks as I do it running right, so I have been focusing on getting it mechanically “sound”. I have rebuilt the carb, installed a new alternator, went through the distributor, and will be installing new plugs and wires this weekend. My question is this, I was messing with it one day and discovered that when I advanced the timing it ran a lot better, the trouble is that I run out of room to advance it but so far. Can I take out the distributor and turn it a couple teeth to get the ability to advance it further. This may be a dumb question (and probably is) but the reason I ask is because it runs smoothest with the timing advanced as far I can advance it at the moment. I plan on hooking a timing light to it tonight to see where it’s at right now, I’ve held off on doing that because the timing marks on the balancer were a little rusted over. But I think I finally got them clean enough to be visible with the light. Do y’all have any advice on how to go about that? I assume unhook the vacuum advance and start at around 10 degrees of initial timing?
Thanks all

Earl

 

Welcome to FTE!
10 degrees is a good place to be. Have you determined that your vacuum advance is actually working if it isn't advancing the timing will make it run better at idle, but it will be very hard to restart when it is hot if your initial timing is advanced too far. The vacuum advance on a 65 352 should pull in an additional 5 degrees or so at idle depending on how much vacuum your engine has.

 

Thanks for the welcome! I have not checked the vacuum advance. What’s a good way to test it?

 

Hand Vacuum Pump (Best Method)

This is the gold standard.

Steps

1. Disconnect the vacuum hose from the carb or manifold.
   
2. Attach your hand‑vac pump directly to the vacuum advance nipple.
   
3. Pump it up to 10–15 inHg.
   
4. Watch the breaker plate (or rotor) inside the distributor.
   

What you should see

• The breaker plate should rotate smoothly as vacuum increases.
  
• It should hold vacuum without bleeding down for at least 20–30 seconds.
  
• If it leaks down → the diaphragm is shot.
  
• If it doesn’t move → the plate is stuck or the canister is dead.

 

Well, I pulled the vacuum line off the carb side and figured a little suck wouldn’t hurt before going out and getting a hand pump. Straight air, like sucking through a straw. Safe to say she’s shot.
Oh well, could be worse.

 

Another issue you will probably run into is worn parts like your timing chain and gears, or extra play in the distributor. All of these will contribute to your timing being "off" from 10 degrees. You will probably end up setting the timing where your truck starts, runs and drives the best. It will try your patience, but as you address each issue your truck will run better and better.

 

Thats about how it’s going, every little thing I do makes it better and better. The new plugs I put in the other day made a lot more of a difference than I thought they would. Someone has been in the engine before, they used enough gasket maker that it’s pretty obvious. It has it all around the intake, timing chain cover, and water pump, the water pump looks like a new one that someone put on. With any luck maybe they put a new chain on it too

 

x2. It’s important to fix known problems one at a time; otherwise, you end up chasing a problem with parts that you don’t need. Good luck. Keep us posted.