| 422 Advance or Retard the spark? Go forward or go back? That is an interesting question and when investigated it turns out that it isn't at all what you thought it might be. Nic Houslip prepares his RV8 and V8 Roadster for use in sprints and hillclimbs, explains what's involved. 160730 Checking the timing is best accomplished with a stroboscopic timing light. The timing of a distributor with a contact breaker can be set statically (engine off) by adjusting the distributor housing until the points just open. It is not possible to set or measure the timing dynamically (engine running) without the use of a strobe light. This handy device uses a flash tube rather like that in a camera flash that is triggered by the spark via an inductive pickup around the lead to the plug usually on number one cylinder. Aiming the strobe light at the fan belt pulley on the end of the crankshaft it should illuminate the timing mark. As | the
engine speed is increased you can see the mark move forward or backward around
the pulley. Increasing the speed slowly you will see the mark advance as the bob
weights do their work, and as the throttle is released the advance will increase
as the vacuum in the manifold pulls the diaphragm in, but as engine speed falls
the advance will back off. Wandering advance, where the mark doesn't stay in the same place, is usually caused by wear in the distributor spindle, and with contact breaker distributors the dwell time (the amount of time the coil has to charge between sparks) may be affected thereby causing poor running. On all Rover V8s the instructions for fitting the distributor are VERY precise and must be followed to the letter to ensure that correct timing occurs. It requires that you follow a correct procedure - if you do not you risk poor performance and ultimately damage to the engine. If you need to rotate the |  distributor body or reassign the leads, there is something wrong! See a full illustrated copy of this note. More |
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