That's a new one even for Amazon.

I could never get mine to work but this is a great example of a time to dust off and use the abracadabra tool.

 

Yeah they sent it in one of those amazon bubble wrap paper sized envelopes... and the dang thing was never even sealed! The envelope was wide open when I picked it up. Anyone with common sense couldve seen something was wrong. I just wonder how many hands it went through and no one thought to flag it and say hey somethings not right.

Yeah if anyone can tell me how to get the abracadabra tool working I would pay dearly for that info LOL. Mine never seems to work either I must have not poured enough blood, sweat, tears, and curse words into it... either that or I flooded it with all the above

 

@akdoggie I went back and read your post where you thought my timing was 4 degrees to advanced. Im trying to tune my engine a little bit more now before I roadtrip the highboy for the move. I think my dizzy had slipped since checking it today I was almost back to 0 TDC. So here are my findings today and any feedback is appreciated (from anyone else too not just AK). plugged up the vac adv hose with a bolt, hooked up vac gauge to the vacuum tee on the rear passenger side of manifold. Hooked up a timing light as well. Turned dizzy to 14 degrees and it seemed to run good. Then looked at vacuum gauge and it was holding steady at 15. Im at 833' ft above sea level. If I retarded the timing more (closer to 20BTDC is retarding right?) then the vacuum gauge raises a little. I was nervous to crank it too much farther, I went back to 14BTDC and turned it off.

So any more steps with my timing?
any more steps with my vacuum?
Is my engine just tired and thats the best I should hope?

Thanks in advance.
For anyone else that wants to chime in and doesnt know or doesnt remember, its a 74 F250 with a stock FE360 w/ 4spd manual. MC2150 carb that has been rebuilt.

 

Fordguy,

I' not an engine person but I'll add what I can. Advance is the amount of time and degrees a plug fires before TDC. Retarded is the same except with plug firing after TDC. Theoretically perfect timing happens at TDC but theoretical and actual aren't the same. Spark propagation takes time so the spark is set to happen at the optimum time and not the optimum rotational angle or degree.

Finding what the optimum rotational angle, not the time, is necessary to find first and is done by finding the angle where the manifold peak differential pressure, vacuum, is at. The rule of thumb I was taught is to advance the timing 2 degrees from the angle of peak manifold differential pressure or vacuum. It's from here that ignition timing is fine tuned.

Fine tuning is about finding the optimum power, torque, fuel efficiency, etc. or whatever you're tuning for. Fine tuning is about adjusting air and fuel to match the timing advance for the whatever the optimum is you're pursuing. It all starts with finding the angle of peak manifold pressure. It's the baseline where ignition timing starts from. --I don't know about your engine but I imagine there is information available about where to best take the manifold reading from. From what I've been told, not all available choices are created equal.

There are also other components of the timing system that are critical to engine timing and has to be working properly for any of this to matter. For example, if there are any issues with the vacuum advance on the distributer then timing results may be inconsistent or consistently off if it's sticking or something similar.

Hope this helps some and I'm sure the more qualified here will have more to say to help you.

 

2100.....sorry for the slow response. Damn traffic in town today was a real biatch.

First thing I would do is make sure #1 is TDC. Pull the plug and make sure it's at the top. Then look where the timing mark is on the balancer vs the pointer. See where you actually are with TDC. If it on point at zero, the balancer is good and not moved (many do on these over time). I just looked up a 75 360 in my books and it shows 6 degrees BTDC as the settings specs. This is done with the distributor without a hose and the hose capped.

That said, I've seen BBF's with 30 degrees showing on the wheel, but actually only around 8 or 10. the balancers will shift so much, considering they are 45-50 years old. I'd do that first and then if that is correct, we can figure where to set you truck with the vac gauge to the max without having max ping when pulling a load.

 

I've been running into a lot of this on FB MP lately.... are you guys seeing scammers too? They appear to be hacking FB accounts and posting from them.



Price on this one is 1600.... seems legit, LOL

 

I've seen them cheaper here, - for like a $1. I mean, you could start a used car lot with your lunch money lol.

 

This is June in the mountains.

 

Broke my 1/2" breaker bar on some G6 lug nuts this morning. Dang tire shops! Lifetime warranty but still. My IR impact wouldn't touch them. Had to use heat...didn't want to.

 

Some of our ski resorts got over a foot last night....

https://www.abc4.com/news/local-news...ahs-mountains/