so i went out and tried to work on the camaro a little more and adjust the high rpm timing to 37 like alot of people said. i set the timing at 37 and then i chehe carbcked it at idle with vac plugged and it read 25 and when i shut off the motor it would diesel a few seconds and spit a little fuel from the carb and then shut down! WTF is going on! i can hear one or 2 valves tapping on the drivers side, so i do need to adjust those.

 

Too far advanced still. Did you set the static timing yet or are you only adjusting the dizzy at speed? You DO NOT make high RPM adjustments by turning the dizzy you do those with the weights and springs. Get the static set good first then play with the high RPM stuff.

Massey

 

And if you're still attempting to do all this with the stock timing marks and indicatirs you;re wasting your time and hurting your engine. You just can't get it right with those stock marks.

 

i really dont want have to take every thing off the motor and then turn by hand to find TDC. is there a easier way? i thought the mark was pretty close to tdc.

 

take #1 plug out
get the engine close to TDC
Use a pen or other soft plastic device and put that in the hole
Turn engine by hand till the pen stops moving up out of the hole.
If you are at 0° on the stock timing marks that is TDC for #1. The cam if it was advanced or retarded using the timing gears will give you different valve timing. This could effect your overall timing but not where TDC is in relation to the crank.

So if you used your timing gears to "advance" or "retard" your cam remember to add or subtract that many degrees from the overall timing.

Massey

 

You're missing a step there. Since the piston has a fraction of "hang time" at TDC, just doing that won't get him to the true TDC. What you need to do is what Massey first said, making a mark on the harmonic damper adjacent to the 0 degree mark on the timing tab, as soon as the piston stops moving. Then, keep turning the engine over in the same direction until the #1 piston starts to go down, then stop turning. Now, back the engine up and stop as soon as the piston stops moving, and make another mark on the damper. The point between the two marks you just made is absolute TDC on the #1 piston. And as I said before...SET YOUR INITIAL TIMING, LOCK IT DOWN, AND LEAVE IT ALONE!!!! Total advance is NOT adjusted by twirling the distributor. Let's worry about that later.

 

so what is the intial timing on my sbc, approximate. i will pull the #1 plug and bump the motor till i get to tdc. or i could take evrything off and turn by hand.

 

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okay i will start at 6 btdc. it seemed like it didn't want to idle that low. but tomorow i will pull the the plugs and check the tdc

 

If it doesn't want to idle high enough, adjust the curb idle on the carb (drivers side linkage towards the front).