i timed my engine to where my book says to set it to and it seems like it isn't as powerful as it used to be. it doesn't seem to accelerate and have as much power. so i was wondering if anyone knew where you could put it to get good power and gas mileage. would the best be where it is supposed to be or is there a better place than stock? thank you for all of the help in advance.
MadMax, What year car??? What engine???
High_Horse
When you timed it did you have the vacuum advance disconnected and the vacuum source plugged? If it is an automatic was the car in drive when you set the timing with the curb idle set right?
Jake
sorry i forgot to give that information. when i timed it i did disconect the vacum and plujgged it. the car is a 2.3 74 manual. i have two different books. chiltons and clymer. one of them says to time the engine at 600 rpm and the other one says 750 rpm. could that make a deifference?
750 is for an automatic. With the timing gun hooked up and the vacuum hooked back up and with the car running hold the timing gun on the engine so you can see the timing marks. By hand rev the motor. Does the timing mark advance?
Jake
i tried the weights but i didn't try the vacum. i'm pretty sure the 750 in the other book was for a manual. i'll have to try the vacum but not right now because it snowed 3-4 inches last night.
OK. I am going by the sticker on my valve cover and the factory Ford manual. I have a 74 2.3 auto.
Jake
Max,
Going by the book is a must but that is assuming you parts are in original condition in this case your centrifical advance springs and your distributor vacuum advance. The reason that the book says to set the timing at 600 to 750 is because your centrifical advance springs need to be contracted fully into the retarded position. If these springs lost there springy(which they will over time) then you may need to have your car idle at 200 rpm for them to be contracted. Simply remove your dist. cap and turn your rotor to the advanced position and let it go slowly. Then see if there is any more travel that is there before it stops. If there is then you need to remove the springs and shorten them a bit till there is no more slop. Lubricating the surfaces of the advanve plate and fly weights is a good thing to do while it is apart. Setting the timing with a sloppy set of advance springs means you are timing the engine advanced which throws you out of sink with the other componants (dist vac. advance and carb power valve). Now vac. advance......If the vacuum advance has not been changed since you have owned the car then take it off and throw it away. You can either replace it with a like unit or find out what 2.3 had the highest horsepower and put one of them on it. The diaphram on a vac. advance will get hard after awhile and will require more vacuum to operate correctly. They are not very expensive. Do the flyweight springs and vac. advance at the same time. This can be done with dist. on the car. OK....Now that you have set the foundation for your tuneup set the timing as per the book and adjust your carb. If you need this explained more in depth then post your phone number and I will contact you. I think your Pinto should run as good as you can get it to and I will help you acheive that.
High_Horse
i believe my year had the highest horsepower. it sounds like i am going to need to get a new distributor. i still havn't tested the distributors vacum advance yet. i'm going to replace all of the 1 year st uff on it because it has been two years but it hasn't been run very much. i think it has been driven only 2,000 miles in it since i got it.