when I went to check my timing I noticed 2 marks on my balancer. there is a white one and a black one. The black mark is at 0 degrees. Problem is that when we went to set it at 10 degrees I got a lot of detonation past 2000rpm. Total timing is at 32 degrees so it's not like it's too much.
Either your compression is too high for the gas you are using or there is enough carbon built up in the chambers to cause preignition.
are you still using a stock balancer on it? Maybe it slipped. Also you might have gotten some bad gas. Unfortunatly a lot of the fuel around here is crap. One of the places i stay away from is Arco.
I should have mentioned that before I changed the timing it was running perfect. but since the initial timing was set so low I figured I would set it appropriately (to at least 10 degrees) but after doing that I got all this detonation.
is there a way to confirm whether the timing marks that are on there right now are correct and to see if maybe there was some slippage or something?
Remove the #1 spark plug, get the piston to TDC. Then, check the balancer, see if the 0 degrees mark is in the right place (at the pointer). If not, it is slipped.
didn't get a chance to check TDC. But went and turned the distributer a little clockwise and noticed little less pinging (put still pinging after 2K) and more power on the bottom with a lot less power on top (after 3K). Then turned it counterclockwise and noticed less power on the bottom and more pinging on the bottom and lots more power after 3K. The exhaust smell REALLY strong with the distributor more counterclockwise.
So I looked at the markings on the balancer closely and the black mark was at 0 degrees so that's what it was set at when bryant and I adjusted it after changing the carb. There is a silver mark at 7 or so BTC which gave me pinging, good low power, less high end power. I put a mark at 10 ATC but couldn't turn the distributer far enough to even get to it and the car would stumble a lot anyways. When I turn the dist clockwise the rpm's come up and they go down when turning counterclockwise. I have 89 octane fuel in the tank.
we can use my piston stop and find the ture top dead center on the balacer next time you come by. we can also see if we can lock out the advance and use your msd to do timeing.
I'll detonate my way over to your shop next week sometime and if the engine is still in one piece hopefully we can figure it out . . .
go for a test drive and keep backing the timing off till detonation stops.then look and see what the timing marks say.
I remember your old thread with your dyno results showing excessive valve float............ I would say its a strong possibility that 7 degrees timing is all your going to get out of it. Everything is probably covered in carbon from the valves floating that much. Back the timing off and nurse it to the shop to verify timing marks on balancer, investigate a vaccum leak, maybe seafoam for good measure. If you can hear pinging, its been damaging the piston BEFORE you heard it. Keep foot out of throttle.
For a small block you turn the distributor counter clockwise to retard and with a six you turn it clockwise to retard the timing. (looking at the distributor from the top)
ok that's very helpful. I'll retard it as much as I can and drive it over to bryant's shop and like always and can fix whatever I've busted . . . cheers!
