well its one of those parts iv been wanting to change, i put a new motor in about 10,000 miles ago and kept the original 200,000 mile old distributor. the distributor was worn, had some play in it and the truck started to give out when it got hot, then the other day it finally quit for good so i figured the modue was bad, ended up being the coil but i wanted the distributor anyway because of how worn it was.
anyway, turns out im a total retard, i made a mistake by assuming the first 0 mark on the dampener was the right 0.thanks, but i figured out my problem which wasnt what i though at all. my fluiddamper has many markings, not just a 0 mark like a stock dampener, a little after 50 degrees theres another 0 mark(not sure for what, 0 degrees for another cylinder?, couldn't be bottom dead center, wouldnt run.) but it was not the right one obviously, so when the advance worked i was thinking it was dropping back the timing becasue i was looking at the markings wrong when really it was advancing it beyond the markings, its hard to tell how little movement is so many degrees when theres no more marking i guess, so between that and me not realizing you need to turn the truck off in between unplugging and plugging back in the est wire i was just chasing my tail all day like a fool. so i set it to the proper 0 degrees and was on my way, after 5 minutes of spitting and sputtering with severely fouled spark plugs that is. the plugs look real bad, probably from slipping performance from the old coil and hours of screwing with the timing watching it spit black smoke, the neighbors love me.
after logging the truck to make sure it wasnt knocking i noticed i definitly have a knock issue, but its not from me timing it wrong becasue now that i notice it, i know iv felt the same thing before, pretty much ever since the manual transmission swap. when i hit a certain point during normal acceleration the motor feels like it hits a wall, and after dataloging it, its clear that the power loss is from 8 degrees of knock retard, during a normal light acceleration i will reach 0 vacuum, maybe even a pound of boost, so the timing gets pretty low, around 12 degrees and its still taking timing out? my debate is weather this is some form of preventative burst knock or if my knock sensor is really reading any knock... makes me wonder about the quality of the fuel im running, 8.9:1 compression and 93 octane and i get a knock at 12 degrees of timing? somethings not right.