318 timing issue

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n00blike

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Hello, Last week I was helping my brother get his car on the road again. It is a 72 duster with a 318. I has not been rebuilt rebuilt from what I can see and seems to be in need of one.

Anyway, It doesn't want to start unless the timing is set to 30+ advanced. It is nuts! I guess it was running on higher before. Way too much from what I can tell.

When we set it to 12 advanced it wont start what so ever. but as soon as we set it to 30+, it fires right up but running too accelerated.

It has an MSD distributor, so the only thing I can think of is that the distributor got re-installed incorrectly at some point.

Also, it has a 2brl carb could that be running too lean?
 
Is vacuum advance hooked up? If so it needs to be disconnected before timing the motor.

Have you checked the light on another engine you know is timed correctly?

What does it look like if you put a vacuum gauge on it? Maybe the harmonic balancer has spun causing a false reading.
 
To see if Dizzy is off, bump it to TDC & pull the dizzy cap & tell us where the rotor points. Should point to the front intake bolt on the driver's side.
 
Set it to tdc pull cap, take not of were the rotor is pionting, that should be were #1 plug wire goes.
And as stated, make sure the vacuum advance is unpluged.
 
Thanks for all the advice!

I did have the advanced hooked up, I will remove it next time I check the timing.

The light did read another car's time correctly.

I don't have a vacuum gauge but i'll see this weekend if I can get more info.
 
UH, This is from 4 months ago....Didn't hear from him....Probably just had the vacuum advance still hooked up and not plugged when he checked it
 
bbrroowwnn said:
UH, This is from 4 months ago....Didn't hear from him....Probably just had the vacuum advance still hooked up and not plugged when he checked it
Click to expand...


So are you saying that anyone posting now has "bad timing".... :D
 
krazykuda said:
So are you saying that anyone posting now has "bad timing".... :D
Click to expand...

ROFL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :prayer:

Well I have been focusing on getting my duster on the road and my brother doesn't seem that interested in getting his car running....

When he is ready I will help him out and try out what was suggested.

I have a feeling it maybe the the timing chain. Talking to my brother he said the timing had to be adjusted every now and them.
 
You know the slot on an msd dist is not the same as a stock dist in relation to the rotor ...
 
n00blike said:
Hello, Last week I was helping my brother get his car on the road again. It is a 72 duster with a 318. I has not been rebuilt rebuilt from what I can see and seems to be in need of one.

Also, it has a 2brl carb could that be running too lean?
Click to expand...


What I don't like about the carter 2bbl carb on the 318 is that the accelerator pumps are using leather to seal against a cast iron bore. After a while, the cast iron wears out the leather and it doesn't seal properly anymore and you loose your pump shot. This creates hard starting and an off idle bog. I was changing accelerator pumps like Kotex on a heavy flow day.... I finally went to a Holley 4 bbl....

The best way to check for this is to have the engine off, and cycle the accelerator linkage a couple of times while looking into the carb. If you see gas shooting when you cycle the throttle, you are ok, if no gas or "choppy" comes out, you should replace the pump.
 
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