I am about to advance my timing somewhere in between 12* BTDC and 16* BTDC I was wondering what everyone elses settings were. It would be interesting to see what everyone has.

 

I have my distributor set at 10 but I have upwards of 40deg total in with my tuner.... stock is about 30 total.

 

My base timing is at 10 to , but i don't run the stock timing curve .....Lew

 

stock......

 

I've seen people say that installing an upgraded coil and bigger plug gap will allow you to advance your timing far beyond stock. Is this good advice? What would you need in the way of a coil upgrade to do this?

 

I bought my truck used with the timing accidentally set back 10 degrees, I have had it advanced to 12 I think. I tried to go more but it ran real rough so I left it at 12.

 

This is called the 6 Liter Tuneup and works very well-----except for guys like AndyM...but whatever

But there's a bit more to it than what you've mentioned---the list is basically as follows;

1). New Motorcraft or Autolite copper plugs, gapped at .055

2). New hi quality dizzy cap and rotor.

3). 48,000 volt coil, like the MSD #8227

4). 8.8mm or 9mm plug wires (like the FMS from Summit Racing).

Install this stuff and then adjust your base timing from 10 to 13---->16 degrees. Give or take, as every engine is different. I think mine is at about 13.8 (if indeed my timing marks are in the correct position) but I actually time mine using a vacuum gauge, trying to reach the most vacuum at idle. I show almost 19hg's at 825 rpms.

But do a Googly on this tune-up before you get too crazy---there are dozens of pages and personal reports and stories from all the folks who have done this----very informative reading for the first timer.

Also this stuff should run you about $130.00---but will pay for itself rather quickly, since your mileage should increase by at least 15%.

Good luck,

RB

 

Funny. I just climbed out from under the hood. Had timing at 12 it ran good idled at 750 and vac was at 19". I just bumped it up to 14 deg. My idle came up to 800rpm and vac increased to 20". I'm gonna try running it like this and see how it responds. I was just looking through wondering the same thing. Ha.

 

I assume you did this with the SPouT connector out?.........

 

Mine is set to 10deg, I tried bumping it up to see how it act. Yea I could get 13+ easy without any spark knock and it improved top end a little.

Problem was loss of power at the bottom end, not a lot no but noticeable. I need it to pull / carry heavy loads. It ain't no race car, to heavy to start with.
I need the power at the low end more then any slight gain I get at the top end from bumping the timing up a couple degrees beyond that 10deg btdc mark.
Nope, the trade off just isn't worth it.

 

So it sounds like you haven't tried the 6 Liter Tune-up yet---you really should give it a whirl Dan, cuz I think you'll be somewhat amazed at the difference in both your performance and mileage.........

 

Sounds like you retarded the timing... advancing it normally improves low end TQ.

 

Nope, I advanced it. Did it a degree at a time and each time I gain a small amount at the top end but loss at the bottom end.

Nothing major both ways, only a slight gain and slight loss. The loss down at the low end did seam more then the gain, not talking big differences either way.

For example run the truck by itself no load with the timing set to 13deg it'd run great in the upper R's and over all quite well like that. Thought hell yea this will work!
Well then hooked the tool trailer up to it to go to work only to discover it'd struggle with it to get it moving.

Dropped the timing back down to 10deg btdc and it pull the load with good power again.

Keep in mind I tried different setting between 10 and 14.5 btdc under differing conditions (I could go as high as 14.5 and not suffer any spark knock).

I tried it with and without a load and each time it'd suffer pulling any kind of a load with the timing bumped up to or beyond 11deg.

Again no big jump in performance but I could feel/hear the difference with it bumped up. Not a big loss of power low end but enough the gain bumping it up wasn't worth it.

Now if I didn't use my trucks the way I do, say only drove them as "daily drivers" no load empty to a factory type job and back every day? I might have left the base timing set a couple three degrees over the factory base setting.

Oh, I should add the timing chain is pretty tight in my 94, very little if any slack in it, degree at the most. Fresh "jasper" motor not long ago.

Edit:

Watching the timing mark while installing/removing the spout jumper shows the computer changing, "advancing" the base timing at an idle like it should.

 

Are you absolutely positive you are advancing the timing? You have been around here for a while and I'm pretty sure you know what you're doing.. but your results are exactly opposite of what should happen and what I get when I advance the timing.

 

Yea I'm sure, use a timing light have a wax pencil for marking the balancer.
I sand the balancer clean so I can read the marks, heck I can read the numbers and lines stamped into the wheel with the timing light before and after the wax mark while its running!

I watch the timing mark advance (or retard) as I rotate the distributor. Defiantly no "guess work" involved when changing the timing.

I run motorcraft plugs but use wires made for use with headers so the can take the heat from the manifolds, need to the factory heat shields rusted away long ago.