timing on a 54 chevy 235 engine

The shop manual calls for 5 degrees of timing, do you set the ball on the flywheel to the left of the pointer or to the right of the the pointer to get your 5 degrees? I am using a 12 volt timing light hooked to a 12 volt battery, any information would be very helpful, thank you,lloyd

 

When those specs were written the gasoline had lower octane than today's gas for one.
Nowadays with 87 octane gas you probably want to advance the timing a little, to get complete burn. That's to the right of the ball on the flywheel, if you have the correct flywheel for your engine.

You can always time your engine perfectly without any timing light, if you go on an incline in highest gear and floor the pedal.
Keep advancing (turning the diz counter-clockwise) in small steps at a time until you get the slightest ping. Then retard a little and you are good.

Always make sure your vacuum advance is not leaking and the distributer is tight and you have a good cap and good points adjusted to spec.

 

Does your distributor have the little "octane selector"? If so, my shop manual says set it at "0" and then turn the distributor until the ball lines up with the pointer. Otherwise advance is when the ball is before the pointer.

Other than that you will have to play with it and see where the engine likes to run. My 56-235 only likes a couple degrees advance.

 

i just ran across this post , and i am having trouble with my timing too ,, you said set the oct to 0 and the BB ball to above the pointer or below the pointer ,, i get them mixed up ,, is above the pointer advanced ??

thanks guys