Projects Cutting my Hotrod Teeth (57 Chevy Budget build/revival)

Okay so maybe I’m not understanding “12 degrees advance” and “12 degrees after”. On my timing tab, there’s 0, A, and R. Assuming for advance and retard. Am I looking for 12 degrees in the A, or in the R?

 

Hey, I don’t sport a beard!!!

 

Look up specs on Google for your year of 283. I’d assume maybe factory was 6-8 BTDC. Yes, B would be advanced, R would be retarded/ late timing, shouldn’t have but one line on the marker there for the R side. Each line is 2 degrees.

 

I edited the post

 

So “before” top dead center would be advanced?

 

See, mark shows 4 in his paper shot. So back it off, readjust idle speed as you go. Dwell shouldn’t change. So if set, you should be fine unless something is dunking up the contacts

 

As Mark says, yes. Timing is set Befor TDC, ie before # 1 (and the rest follow) reach TDC to start the ignition of the mixture to push the piston back down. If set after, will run like poop if at all

 

Do you have a tab for the timing marks bolted to the engine side?

 

I believe it’s on the timing cover. I haven’t touched it and I assume it’s original

 

Okay, (I’m a grey beard, bear with me ). See the marks on it? Looking at it the “left side” should have the notches and lines. Just use a flash light to see them.

 

I mean left side of “0”.

 

I think I got it about the timing marks. Now I just gotta get it to run again!

 

Timing is set at a certain RPM. The faster the idle, the chance of the springs expanding, add to advance.
So it’s a balancing act, little timing adjust, little idle adjust, repeat.

 

So you can do a static timing. You may not have a bolt to hold the balancer/dampener on. But with # one at TDC on compression stroke, the engine sitting should show you on the mark between your B/R. If not, someone previously may have put a different balancer/dampener on the engine.
So if no bolt, you have to get a “flywheeel wrench”
Or use a pry bar lever, to keep rotating the engine.
This works much easier w/o the spark plugs in.
If you have a helper, have them
Put their finger over the # 1 plug hole, lifting occasionally, when air escapes, you are on the #1 compression stroke. So then rotate the crank until no air escapes, you should be close to TDC and the mark should line up close between B and R. Well, within a few marks of the B and R center
Chevy use 3? Different timing tabs and each balancer/dampener had the line in a different spot to correspond.

Rotate the engine is the same rotation as it would be spinning when running or trying to start it.


Edit: I should have added, then pull the cap, make sure the rotor is point at
Or very near to # one on the cap.

 

I’ve been thinking about what the issue could be, and it certainly is timing. It’s just strange that I had it running one minute, then couldn’t get it to start the next. I won’t be able to touch the car again for a week or 2 now, but I know I have fuel, and I know my ignition wiring is good.

Next time I can work on it I’m going to static time it by marking where the #1 terminal would be on the distributor, and then turning the engine until the balancer lines up.

The only thing I can think of that may have messed up my timing so bad it won’t start, is that when using the timing light, I had the distributor rotated too far clockwise in the block, so I picked it up, turned it counterclockwise, and dropped it back in the block to give myself more room to turn it, because the advance canister was hitting the firewall but it still wasn’t advanced enough accordingly to my timing light/balancer mark. Maybe I rotated it too far? Either way, it started once after that, so it wouldn’t make sense that I’m 180 out. Maybe that one time it started was an insanely lucky act of nature, I dunno. Thinking on it though, the plugs are wet, and I have spark at the plugs, a pretty strong spark too as I switched out the coil because it got super hot trying to start. Put the original delco coil back in and the spark was white, not pale yellow like before.

Just the fact that when it cranks, it will occasionally detonate makes it hard to believe its anything else BUT timing.

 

And remember. Line the mark up on the compression stroke. It will go around twice.

 

Most definitely when you picked up the distributor and the rotated counterclockwise and dropped it back in messed up the timing. You are on the right track to go back to static timing. You will need to lift the dizzy out and line it up with #1 plug in the correct position.

 

You may know this, but if you need to do a tooth or two at a time, a long flat blade screwdriver can orient the oil pump slot so the distributor tang drops in.

 

Sorry for disappearing again, it’s been a busy couple weeks! I only had a few minutes this morning at my mom’s to tinker and I got it to run again by just twisting the distributor counter clockwise. Now I’m out of gas and I’ve got a cookout to get to, but when it was running it was sounding really good! The idle even smoothed out. I’m actually tempted to tighten down the dizzy so I’m not liable to mess it up again…


I should have a free weekend coming up soon that I can come back up, the fall is always extra busy for me, but the good thing is, I still have the bug to work on the car!

 

Use the timing light!