[brianl269]

After all of the feedback concerning my freeway temperature issue (thanks everyone!) I think timing is the problem. I'm going to take my baby to a shop tomorrow to find out what my current timing is and have it set. What should i have it tuned to for starters? Engine is 67' 326 250hp with Edelbrock performer cam, other than that stock.

What should I be looking at for initial, vacuum and mechanical? What RPM range should things kick in at? Any help appreciated as my local hot rod guy is not particularly Pontiac savvy, although a fine mechanic.

Brian
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[brianl269]

After all of the feedback concerning my freeway temperature issue (thanks everyone!) I think timing is the problem. I'm going to take my baby to a shop tomorrow to find out what my current timing is and have it set. What should i have it tuned to for starters? Engine is 67' 326 250hp with Edelbrock performer cam, other than that stock.

What should I be looking at for initial, vacuum and mechanical? What RPM range should things kick in at? Any help appreciated as my local hot rod guy is not particularly Pontiac savvy, although a fine mechanic.

Brian
[email protected]

[RAJNWDY]

I time it till it pings then back it off a little, but with the gas we get now. I might have to adjust that a little further. Gas here in California sucks. Anyway, stock timing will be good for starters then advance as needed. Before timing is set though you need to check the points for proper gap. (dwell) Remember this: DWELL WILL EFFECT TIMING, TIMING WILL NOT EFFECT DWELL!
have your vacuum advance checked and also see whether your centrifugal advance is working. Total advance should be around 32-36 degrees at around 2700-3200 RPM. Most Pontiac engines of your year were at 6 Before Top Dead Center (BTDC)

RDRR Custom Fabrications

....A fictitious company doing fictitious work....

[Sun Tuned]

Would have to agree. I got home late tonight and it's been a long one to say the least.

I could look up stock specs for a 250/326, but 6 is a good starting point for the stock ones. That is to say I belive they were set at 6. Do I like 6? Not really, however that may be about it with todays gas and the way the dist is currently set up. Could that be changed easily? Yes.

More times than not a guy sends in a dist, or complains here in town that the car runs poorly or hot, or both. Almost always his vac advance is or quickly gets diagnosed, by me if I happen to be standing there, as a dead player. Most never even think about it. And no, I'm not skeered or too proud to pull the line and suck on it to see. If the car isn't already running I'll do it in a heartbeat. The point here is to make sure it does function, because the way the stock setup worked was they typically used alot of vac advance in the equation in order to get fuel economy. A dead vac adv can easily cost you 25% of your mileage.

Now you could always change things up a bit and that's where the vac adv gets changed to one with less degrees of advance. Then you can turn the initial up a bit, but only if the centrifugal isn't way out in the next zip code. On the 326 10-12 initial works good with about 11 in the dist and no more than 15 deg max at the crank of vac adv. Those small closed chamber heads get carboned up after a few years and get sort of intolerant of high timing figures with the gas we got today. Don't set it up on the edge in case you should catch a bad load of gas, it'll want to rattle on you. These nuts around here (memphis)are notorious for cutting the gas with diluted grades of other gas. Which explains why one tank of 93 runs good and the next one the week after sounds like an ice crusher. The man at the Bureau of Weights and Measures frowns on that, but then I guess they figure one little load of 87 mixed in with the 93 won't hurt just this once. Who will ever know?