well i could tell my car was not very advanced because of how it started up. it would take no effort for the starter to turn it over and it would wind all the way up until the motor would fire. so i turned it counterclockwise, facing the vacuum canisters towards the front of the engine, and it fired up as i would like it to, the starter struggling for a second. well when i took the car around the block, it ran ok and all, but upon half way hard acceleration, i would hear a ticking that sounded like valves slapping the head pretty damn hard. it was jsut a ticking that you can clearly hear upon hard acceleration. so i backed off the advance a little, and took another ride. it definitely ticked less, but it still was ticking. so i basically tweaked it until i finally got the most advance without the ticking. the starter motor once again can easily turn the motor. my question is what is this ticking? i would love to advance my timing considerably but im certainly not driving around with this noise coming from my engine.

 

detonation bad . Get a timing light with the advance feature. What is your goal by advancing the timing that much??

 

Well said. Get a timing light & set the initial advance where it is supposed to be. Invest in a Haynes manual for procedure. The ticking you heard is called pinging or detonation. Too much advance tries to make the engine turn in the opposite direction and can cause severe damage.

 

i know what advancing is and does, i just thought detonation would of sounded a little more dramatic. first time hearing it so i guessed it was pinging anywyas and stopped it right after io heard it. anyways, my goal here was to have the starter struggle for jsut a quick moment and hten fire the motor right up. but it pings way before i even get that good advance. im getting a timing light with a dial hooked up 2 morro and seeing where im at. these cast iron heads cant be helping the situation much.

 

Well, pinging sounds like a bunch of beans rattling in an empty coffe can, detonation sounds like the engine is getting whacked with a ball peen hammer, similiar to a big truck deisel under load.

 

yea its more of a ping, mosty occurs when i give it some gas off idle, or when its under load such as going up a steep hill. doesnt do it at steady rpm.

 

Make sure that your vacuum advance, if you are using one, is working properly, and only advancing spark during low load conditions. You may want to try using some higher octane fuel. If it just pings off idle and goes away under WOT, you should be OK.

 

i have a little update, i needed the truck to pull the lawn equipment so i had my old man take my car to work. i asked him what gas he put in it and he said 89. so i used u all the 89 and filled it with 93 like the usual and it stopped the pinging, but i still cant really advance it very far. anyways now once in a while you can hear it skip, it kinda farts from time to time at steady rpm, so im going to check all the plugs, maybe one got bruised up in all the ruckus. its not a big deal if it pings just off idle? because i cant really get away from that no matter where my timing is.

 

My bud had this problem, ended up being loose valves where his new cam was being broken in (long story short, the cam wiped out a lobe and it kept happening until he go a new cam again). Maybe check the valvetrain for any lash or play?

 

i did readjust all the valves and it seemed to fix it up nice thanks