Locking the Timing out

Well this past weekend I went racing and talked to several guys about timing. 99.9 percent told me to lock my timing out. I told them I drive the car on the street sometimes but they said it wont hurt anything. What do you guys think about this? SHould I lock it out or keep springs on it?

With your combo I would not lock it out but I don't think it would hurt your drivability much. For drag racing, the timing is maxed out by the time you launch anyway so I don't know why it would help/hurt.

If you do lock it out, you might want to think about using a start retard.

If it was my car I would keep the light springs.JMO
I've had it both ways,and it's a whole lot more convenient,and I can't see any difference. Locking it is hard on starters. It's in at about 2500 anyway.

I have my initial timing at 20 degrees and total between 34-36 degrees seems to work good for me that way.

Later Mark.

Mark Miller wrote:I have my initial timing at 20 degrees and total between 34-36 degrees seems to work good for me that way.

Later Mark.

x2... I had my chassis guy (awesome welder) TIG my Duraspark distributor's 'timing window', then filed it square to get the total advance I wanted. Don't have any pics, but it's the outer slot that the advance mechanism tab travels between, controlling the amount of advance.

lock it out,and install a start retard,

When I had my engine ont the dyno a coupe of years ago, we made a small pull and Bret Powell asked me if the timing was locked. It wasn't and he said that the timing was bouncing all over the place at the lower rpms, and even above where it was supposedly all in. Moral of the story, lock the timing and put in a start retard like Rich said.

I have a question guy's. Why does timing bounce on some and NOT on others? Both having light springs and tight bushings. I'm running a MSD CT setup now(not that impressed)but when I ran the light springs in my old MSD dizzy i never had the bouncing you all talk about.

No expert here but from what I have been told timing bounce can be caused by several things, slack in timing chain, module going bad in distributor, improper alignment/slack in cam gear and distributor gear, and ingition box starting to fail.

Only problem I would have with a retard control in the car is I have a digital 6 box that auto retards on the NO2. I'm thinking this would conflict with my Digital 6 box. Am I correct?

If.
1] timing chain is in good condition.
2] diz gear is intalled in the correct position.
3] diz has proper end play.
4] the diz is in good general condition
5] light silver advance springs are installed
The timing will not jump around. Locking the diz is a short cut to cover up the above or a poor or poorly tuned carb that will not idle well.

1Bad91 wrote:Only problem I would have with a retard control in the car is I have a digital 6 box that auto retards on the NO2. I'm thinking this would conflict with my Digital 6 box. Am I correct?

The digital 6 box has a start retard. no need for anything extra.

DFI429 wrote:

Mark Miller wrote:I have my initial timing at 20 degrees and total between 34-36 degrees seems to work good for me that way.

Later Mark.

x2... I had my chassis guy (awesome welder) TIG my Duraspark distributor's 'timing window', then filed it square to get the total advance I wanted. Don't have any pics, but it's the outer slot that the advance mechanism tab travels between, controlling the amount of advance.

That's how my buddy did my Duraspark works good.

Later Mark.

whatbumper wrote:

1Bad91 wrote:Only problem I would have with a retard control in the car is I have a digital 6 box that auto retards on the NO2. I'm thinking this would conflict with my Digital 6 box. Am I correct?

The digital 6 box has a start retard. no need for anything extra.

X2... The start retard is totally seperate from the retard "wire" that is used for pulling timing out in different instances. The start retard automatically drops 20* when you hit the starter.





Doug...

whatbumper wrote:

1Bad91 wrote:Only problem I would have with a retard control in the car is I have a digital 6 box that auto retards on the NO2. I'm thinking this would conflict with my Digital 6 box. Am I correct?

The digital 6 box has a start retard. no need for anything extra.

Another x2... The Digital 6 is cool for the seperate start & triggered retards built-in.

bbf-falcon wrote:I have a question guy's. Why does timing bounce on some and NOT on others? Both having light springs and tight bushings. I'm running a MSD CT setup now(not that impressed)but when I ran the light springs in my old MSD dizzy i never had the bouncing you all talk about.

You'll see NO bouncing with a Crank Trigger. All the historises in all the parts between the crankshaft and the distributor ignition sensor contributes to the bouncing conundrum.

running timing un locked with a carb and alcohol I always had an erratic idle that changed with the engine temp especially noticeable after a run , but with injection I have noticed it is dead smooth.

Leaving off a 2 step or above 2200 or so rpm I would not think would change much running the light springs , maybe a little more cylinder heat from locked timing , but after doing a burn out or being able to put heat in the engine with the fuel shut off a little "idling time" would be about as significant as a gnat on an elephants butt