Ok so I am a little new to setting the timing on the mustang. I do a lot of mechanical stuff myself, but have yet to use a timing light. This is a first for me so I have a question. I have already set the 1st piston to TDC on the compression stroke, and the balancer was at 0 deg. right on that little pointer, now my question is this. When I clean up my balancer and mark the timing points, how is it that I check the timing. If I understand correctly, when the strobe light of the timing gun flashes it makes the marks look like they stay still. So am I supposed to turn the distributor until the mark I want (for example - 14 deg) is lined up at the pointer steadily with the flashes of the timing gun? If this is correct, please let me know so I may continue to set my timing. If not please let me know what I have to do. Thanks.
Need help setting initial timing
- Thread starter Roxy89
- Start date
Ok so I was setting the timing and test driving every once in awhile and I couldn't get it to ping. Right now I have it at 20 degrees and no pinging. It didn't ping until I took it to about 30 deg but then it also gave me idling problems. But at 20 deg it is not pinging and running very smooth. Does this sound normal? I took the spout connector out with the car on and then hooked up my timing light and turned the car on and then read the timing. Now when I finish setting the timing and tightening the distributor, do i just connect the spout connector again with the car on and then take it for a test drive, or am I supposed to shut it off again, then put the spout connector and then test drive it? Please let me know because to me, 20 deg is too much. Also, the deg reading is at the end of the pointer correct? For example if I am standing in front of the car looking at the engine and look down I see the timing pointer. Am I supposed to line up the timing marks all the way to the right of the timing pointer?
20 degrees might not be too much....it really just depends on the car. What octane fuel are you running, premium fuel fights off pinging when timing is aggresively advanced
Well I was running premium fuel, but my last tank I put in regular 87 octane just to see what it would do. I figured if it pinged a little I would back it down to maybe the original 14 I was shooting for and could do fine without even using premium fuel. Well to my amazement, I have been on that tank of gas for about 3 days now, and still nothing abnormal.
