Power Timing your Buick V8

Thanks for that very quick reply Larry!

I was thinking about applying some vacuum to move the arm back, but I couldnt figure out what to useo No:
Maybe I will need to get that water hose off that block the way when pulling the canister back

0.086 and 0.104 is in inches I presume, translated to metric it would be 2.2-2.65 mm and this is what should be left for movement after doing the reduction, right?

I liked the solution with parts from a bicycle chain by the way; think Ill go for that.

Thanks again

 

With two helping hands the vacuum canister came off in ten seconds.
With one person pulling/wiggling it and the other pushing down the pin, it was easy.
Could be a bit trickier to get it back in though, especially with that reducer plate is on.
That’s why I was thinking of taking the distributor off the engine. Would be so much easier working with it on the bench.
What I dread though is getting it back in correct .
How about if I make a mark at the bottom of the housing of the distributor that aligns against the engine block, and put on the rotor to note where that is positioned (like 2 a clock), is that enough to not go wrong putting it back in again?? Any advice is welcome
I know I will have to set my advance either way after having it off, but that’s no problem since I’m gone do that anyway. My concern is mainly getting it in correct gear

The vacuum canister looks like it have been replaced not so long ago, can’t help wonder why?

 

Thanks Larry, will do so
I have made a bussing that reduces the pin movement to 0.110, guess thats still a bit much

I normally put 95 octane in the tank and 98 is available too here, maybe that gives me some extra marginal on the advance side?

On a totally different note, check out this 71 GS for sale here in Sweden.
I found it interesting that it had been sold here as new and only had had two owners.cant be many of those thats for sure :eek2:

http://www.usabil.nu/databas/Detalj.asp?ID=86051

 

Truly the Sticky that keeps on giving! Thanks Larry.

Mitch

 

Below is another method to make a vacuum advance stopper/reducer.
I manufactured this bushing in aluminium with ordinary hand tools. The pin now only moves .098 (2.5mm).

That bronze bushing from the JEGS spring kit did come on a little too easy as others already have pointed out earlier in this thread.
A drop of Loctite inside the bushing should do the trick after cleaning real thorough.

 

Mission accomplished

This weekend I got through my ignition upgrade:
- Vacuum advance stopper/reducer-check
- Mechanical advance bushing installed and secured with Loctite (red bottle-old style)-check
- MSD Blaster coil installed-check
- Crane XR-i points conversion kit installed-check

Had the black springs (mr Gasket/JEGS) installed first while adjusting the timing to be all in with the (1.76) 30* mark aligning 0 on the timing indicator (vacuum disconnected), then switched to the silver springs.
The mechanical advance seemed to move the mark about half an inch, normal?
I tried to see where the ordinary mark on the balancer ended up at idle after doing the setting, but was unable to see it along the timing indicator. Might have to do with my idling being a bit too high at that moment.
Took the car out for a test run and did a few kick downs, no pinging that I could notice and definitely a little more yeah! than before. It had started to rain more and more so I went back to the garage.
I had to adjust down the idle from 1000 to 750rpm, but apart from that the engine is running great and starts easily.
I might try and go a little higher with the timing later on a sunny summer afternoon, but Im happy for now with the good result. Will also be interesting to see if the fuel consumption improves a little.

Thanks Larry for all the great help! :beer

Ps, when working with the distributor IN the car, this dentist style mirror really came handy. Got it at ordinary car parts shop and I love it

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I completed my upgrade today and I allso used the mrGasket kit but kept the original weights (the ones that came with seemed rather... small ). Anyway I too started with the black ones, but being far up the advance curve even at idle I only used them for seting max (32). Put on the gold ones (heaviest, remember original weights) to check initial and voila, the curve was just 'right', 12 init. and 32 max at just under 2500.
(vac is limited per instructions)

Too bad I cant test it just yet, we had a second winter apparently last night...

Last but not least I would like to thank Larry for a good post!

 

Hopefully you all believe in "There is no such thing as a dumb question," but how do I tell my engine RPM if I don't have a tach?

 

...sorry for the dumb smart A answer...how do you teel your engine what?:laugh: hook up a tach.....

 

I got an analog multimeter (volt, rpm and dwell) at Sears; think it was 20-30 bucks something.
What I didn’t notice when buying it was the rpm scale ending at 2000 rpm ou:

 

molery--- After I posted that, I figured someone would just say buy a tach and hook it up, so I found one on Amazon (free shipping and tax) and ordered it. Probably the easiest way!

I do have another question. I did the advnace curve replacement and limited my vacuum advance. At full mechnical advance I set it at 32. Initial was at 12. At what RPM shoudld the vacuum advance fall out? Does WOT kill the vacuum? My distributer is hooked up to vacuum through a valve on the carb.

 

HI I have a mallory unilite 47 series with a vacumn advance that was on my 72 350 when I bought it in 05. I was wondering if you had any tips on adjusting this distributor. After reading your thread and then going on the mallory website to learn some more stuff they talk about Single and Double stage curves. They say that you cannot use a single stage curve on street driven cars?? Why is this? I really enjoy your thread because I did not know that timing played such a big issue I thought it was just stab the distributor get it where you want and hook up the vacumn advance. Thanks Russ:beer

 

Russ, what kind of changes are you trying to make? If you're thinking of tweaking the mechanical advance curve, you may need to get Mallory's "Advance Curve Change Kit" #29014 (you'll want to confirm that part number for your dist).

Did the seller give you the instruction sheet for the distributor?

Devon