Which way with the distributer?

[roush 97]

I wanna advance my timing a few degrees. Is it clockwise, or counterclockwise?

 

[ninety1gt]

I wanna advance my timing a few degrees. Is it clockwise, or counterclockwise?

clockwise to advance, counter to retard

 

[roush 97]

I figured it out, I thought clockwise to advance, but Haynes Manual said the opposite.

 

[ninety1gt]

I figured it out, I thought clockwise to advance, but Haynes Manual said the opposite.

yea my haynes manual says the same, but that is wrong

 

[Michael Yount]

If you've got a timing light on it like you should -- all you have to do is turn it one way and watch what happens....

 

[snoboardcore]

i timed mine by ear. I kept adding timing till it sounded right then took it out and would bring the rmps up to 6 slowly and see if it broke up anywhere and when it did i would then retarded it some.

 

[Camman]

Thats cool that you can do that. I worked with driveability guy that could tune any car by ear. It was insane. I used to check his work with a light. I can do it by ear good enough to get teh ****** to start, but I need a light to get it right. Guess that comes with lots of experience

 

[HISSIN50]

We all time the car by ear, though usually we do it backwards (we set it to a given timing, then listen for pinging).

The stangs are the first cars I used a light on, and mainly for comparison in here with what y'all run.

Camman, that same guy could probably synch Triple SU's with a piece of vac tubing - something I would never get quite right.

 

[Repostyle]

setting timing by ear is like shifting, when you first start driving you always check the tach to see when to shift, after a little bit you know by sound. Once you've done it a few times you just know it's right.

 

[86bluecobra]

i timed mine by ear. I kept adding timing till it sounded right then took it out and would bring the rmps up to 6 slowly and see if it broke up anywhere and when it did i would then retarded it some.

if i had your mods and no doubt they cost you a bit of cash then for the protection of my engine i would buy or borrow a timing light and get the timing dead on. i am not saying you don't have a good ear but timing lights were invented for a reason.

 

[Camman]

Hissin, I have only once timed a car by ear, and that was in school during my driveability 3 final. But it was a chevy 350 hei, and all we had to do was stab it and time it without a light. I nailed it, but it was a 350 lol. ne way, the first time I ever timed a car was with a light, and I have never been without one so the need hasnt arrisen. I know tho that I would never ever let a car I worked on go without verifying with a light. Shoot, I still ask questions for things I already know the anser too, just good to have that second reassuring thing ya know

 

[HISSIN50]

Hissin, I have only once timed a car by ear, and that was in school during my driveability 3 final. But it was a chevy 350 hei, and all we had to do was stab it and time it without a light. I nailed it, but it was a 350 lol. ne way, the first time I ever timed a car was with a light, and I have never been without one so the need hasnt arrisen. I know tho that I would never ever let a car I worked on go without verifying with a light. Shoot, I still ask questions for things I already know the anser too, just good to have that second reassuring thing ya know

I do the same about asking questions I know the answer to, as well.

I hear ya - I would not cut a car loose (that I dont drive) without hitting it with a light. But when we bump timing on our stangs to try and achieve max performance, we bump and then listen for pinging. It was in that vein that I time by ear - I can make changes after every drive if I need to. This is generally done on cars that we know fairly well ourselves. Better that way than to set the timing at 16* because someone said to, and not listen (in other words, if you told me I could listen or set it to an absolute number, I would do the former. Unless just setting a customer's car to stock spec - and hoping the balancer hasnt slipped).

The reason I did it without a light for so long was that stuff was either modded or so old that it ran crappy when in spec (this was during the smog era vehicles of the early to mid 80's).

Anyhow, I see your point and in that reference, I agree with ya.