Retarded timing will cause engines to overheat. Unless your 195 stat is defective it will not make your engine overheat. Drop a thermometer in the top radiator tank to get a good temp reading. Make sure you have the vacuum advance set properly with the TVS plumbed in correctly to apply full man vacuum if the engine temp climbs.

 

I believe my dist weights are both marked 15... which with my current 6 degree mark that would put me at 36 total.... I'm not sure what is meant by "Power Timing"... What sort of the initial timing are you guys running...? I have added the common 400 upgrades mentioned in this forum... It seem like I should be shooting for 8 or maybe 10.... or let her ping and back her off???

TVS?? Are you referring to the timed vacuum port off the carb? As I understand setting vacuum advance is more trial and error operating under load conditions and I am still in the break-in period....

Thanks

 

There should be a thermostatic vacuum switch near the thermostat. It shifts vacuum to your advance mechanism from manifold vac at startup to ported vac for running and back to man vac when overheating. There are some TVS units that only do the first two functions.

 

power timing is when you slowly bring the RPM up until you see that it has stopped advancing by watching the balancer with the timing light. then adjust the distributor housing to the desired total timing while the engine is at full advance. a lot of people just set the base timing to what they want it at and don't ever check the total timing.the base timing and the amount of advance that the dizzy has in it add up to the total advance. general rule of thumb is 36*-38*, but some engines will run better with a little bit more and some engines will make max power with less. over-advancing will reduce fuel economy and power output. you prolly need a timing tape on your balancer because the degree marks don't go far enough. cut and paste that link i posted that won't work and you'll see what a timing tape is.

 

They sell timing lights that enable you to set the timing advance that you desire. When you rev your motor the light will blink at zero degree when the set value of advance is reached. If you set 34 degrees, then you will see 2 degrees retard if your total advance is only 32 degrees. You will see 2 degrees advance if your total advance is 36 degrees. I believe it has a built in tach. This way your timing marks will work. Maybe you could rent one of these somewhere.

 

yup, i forgot about the advance **** on my light! you can adjust the **** on the timing light so that the pointer on the engine shows TDC, and the scale on the timing light will tell you how much advance is being applied.

 

I know of the "adjustable" timing light and the timing tape idea would be a big help... All in all, the responses have been, set to your "desired" timing mark... I also got from the responses and understand every motor is different and the "desired" seems to be whatever works best for the given situation...

I took her off on an inagural run (around a 260 mile trip to pick up a corn planter) and she ran great... It gave me the opportunity to play with the timing along the trip as the journey went from flatland to some decent up and down grades... My temp gauge held steady (between mid and hot) and I am still running the narrower shroud from my F-150 (correct one is on the way from the dealer)

The TVS unit is non-existant on my truck as I took over a poor rebuild attempt and the only things still hooked up are the PVC and the hose from the valve cover to the air cleaner... As I understand this may help control overall temp is a given situation... my factory manual does go into this somewhat...

I'm feeling "ALOT" better about my finished product and I can't wait till after break-in to hook up the trailer, slap on the old '54 NAA tractor and try her out... My cam is conservative (Comp 255 DEH) but she seemed to have some real guts down deep, which is what I was after... and amazingly I got around 11-12 MPG just cruising... I am running 33" TSL's and 3.55 gears front and back... I know that puts me in the marginal for the optimum power band, but with the cam specs it seemed to work very well....

Like every old truck, fix one thing and something else comes along... I now have a pretty good front axle seal leak on the drivers side... I think the axles, wheels and wiring are the only things I haven't been into at this point... oh well, good thing I am commited to this truck