Is there a way to monitor ignition timing from the driver's seat?

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dibbons

dibbons

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Someday I would like to install some kind of Air/Fuel Ratio gauge inside where I can see it while I drive (would think it cool to also monitor the carburetor's secondary throttle bore position-still have to figure a way to do that). Anyway, is their any technology out there so that I can know what the distributor ignition timing is second to second (currently using a pertronix billet distributor for small block Mopar). Thank you.
 
Disect a timing light, fab a housing to hold the led portion and just run the wires through the firewall.

Makes no sense .. as you can do it under the hood and just log the degree per rpm... then if you have issue at a specific rpm ...just look at your log of where the timing is at that moment... IF thats even your problem. It's mechanical, so it won't change under load, with the exception of vac advance... that engages whenever you hold cruise rpm on the primary side.

Advice from this birthday boy, hope it's useful.
 
dibbons said:
Someday I would like to install some kind of Air/Fuel Ratio gauge inside where I can see it while I drive (would think it cool to also monitor the carburetor's secondary throttle bore position-still have to figure a way to do that). Anyway, is their any technology out there so that I can know what the distributor ignition timing is second to second (currently using a pertronix billet distributor for small block Mopar). Thank you.
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The current engine controls do that, but they don't show you what it is.
 
MSD used to sell an in-dash controller for timing, but if you're wanting to monitor this from the driver's seat, an EFI upgrade is your most-effective bet. Some dataloggers still work with distributors (or so I'm told) but I don't think there's a way to reconcile from what ignition should be (electronically speaking) to reality (mechanically speaking). The system would need, at minimum, a crank position sensor or some electronic other way of knowing TDC, in order to reference where "advance" is measured from.
 
Lots of efi engines show timing in live data.
 
Mount your timing light under the hood pointed at the timing marks with a back up camera mounted on your light have the monitor on the dash and watch the timing change while you are driving. True low dollar hillbilly style!
 
I'll have to study up on the Megajolt box, but (correct me if I'm wrong) I don't think that it is adaptable to a '72 Mopar classic car ignition.
 
brian6pac said:
Mount your timing light under the hood pointed at the timing marks with a back up camera mounted on your light have the monitor on the dash and watch the timing change while you are driving. True low dollar hillbilly style!
Click to expand...
Yeah that's the ticket... and mount it right next to the 8 or 9 toggle switches, just be careful and not drop the meth pipe thats in your other hand.

:rofl:
 
dibbons said:
Someday I would like to install some kind of Air/Fuel Ratio gauge inside where I can see it while I drive... Anyway, is their any technology out there so that I can know what the distributor ignition timing is second to second (currently using a pertronix billet distributor for small block Mopar). Thank you.
Click to expand...

The AFR gage is easy - Innovate has them as do others. As far as the timing, yes it can be done. You can use one of Innovate's auxilary boxes for data logging with an inductive pickup, but will have to scrounge the older software that had that timing feature. There's really no need to watch it while driving, although Innovate's logging allows the passenger to watch on laptop if you want.

To be honest, this is the best suggestion:
MOPAROFFICIAL said:
do it under the hood and just log the degree per rpm... then if you have issue at a specific rpm ...just look at your log of where the timing is at that moment...
Click to expand...
To add to that, you can log vacuum with a MAP, as well as throttle position with a TPS.
(would think it cool to also monitor the carburetor's secondary throttle bore position-still have to figure a way to do that).
Click to expand...
With some tinkering you can rig a TPS to the secondary if you really want. With mechanical secondaries, there's really no need - the relationship with the primary is given by the linkage.
For vacuum secondaries, I'm not sure what it gets you over other tests that are easier to execute. If you want to know if they opened, a twist tie or paper clip flag on the vacuum diaphram's stem works.
 
dibbons said:
I'll have to study up on the Megajolt box, but (correct me if I'm wrong) I don't think that it is adaptable to a '72 Mopar classic car ignition.
Click to expand...

I have it on a '69 Mopar and a '72 Mopar...
 
MOPAROFFICIAL said:
Disect a timing light, fab a housing to hold the led portion and just run the wires through the firewall.

Makes no sense .. as you can do it under the hood and just log the degree per rpm... then if you have issue at a specific rpm ...just look at your log of where the timing is at that moment... IF thats even your problem. It's mechanical, so it won't change under load, with the exception of vac advance... that engages whenever you hold cruise rpm on the primary side.

Advice from this birthday boy, hope it's useful.
Click to expand...


Happy Birthday
 
dibbons said:
I'll have to study up on the Megajolt box, but (correct me if I'm wrong) I don't think that it is adaptable to a '72 Mopar classic car ignition.
Click to expand...


Mebbie, mebbie not, but you can control timing with an HEI module WHICH YOU CAN hook up to your Mopar distributor
 
KitCarlson said:
Not sure what you mean by "current engine controls", but with an android phone, OBD2 (post 1996), and Torque app, you can read engine timing.
Click to expand...

I meant every engine that now has computer controls for the motor knows what the timing is, but it doesn't show the driver.
 
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