[eric32]

Hello guys well sorry to post again but I just hooked up my timing light to see what my 350 sbc engine was timed at for initial timing and its showing 50 degrees on my tci balancer. I did it first with the vacuum advance plugged and it read 50 and when you rev it it goes off the chart. I hooked the vacuum advance back up just to see and there is no change it still shows 50 initial and I hooked it up to the number one spark plug. The timing marks can not slip cause its a tci rattler balancer and its all steel no elastomer to slip or anything. It starts good and never any kick back just a real tiny bit here and there but not all the time. First time using a timing light but its self explanatory. I am not using dial back advance type just a plain 3551 equus timing light. The only thing the engine is doing is surging but my plugs are showing white gray so I am going up two more jet sizes but it idles fine and has 10 to 12 inches of vacuum and reads good and steady on the vacuum gauge. Don't know what to do from here. Thanks
Eric

[oldbogie]

Originally Posted by eric32

Hello guys well sorry to post again but I just hooked up my timing light to see what my 350 sbc engine was timed at for initial timing and its showing 50 degrees on my tci balancer. I did it first with the vacuum advance plugged and it read 50 and when you rev it it goes off the chart. I hooked the vacuum advance back up just to see and there is no change it still shows 50 initial and I hooked it up to the number one spark plug. The timing marks can not slip cause its a tci rattler balancer and its all steel no elastomer to slip or anything. It starts good and never any kick back just a real tiny bit here and there but not all the time. First time using a timing light but its self explanatory. I am not using dial back advance type just a plain 3551 equus timing light. The only thing the engine is doing is surging but my plugs are showing white gray so I am going up two more jet sizes but it idles fine and has 10 to 12 inches of vacuum and reads good and steady on the vacuum gauge. Don't know what to do from here. Thanks
Eric

Surging can be a sign of excessive advance.

Bogie

[eric32]

Well I just hooked up my timing light again and I get the same thing. I just for giggles hooked it up to another spark plug wire to see what it did and I hooked it up to number six and the same thing 50 degrees at idle and goes up more when you rev it. Crap man I swear I always have bad luck with things and have to go through many things till you get it done. I will have to googe and hope someone else can help me out here of where to start. Thanks bogie for your input that leaves me some options of what's going on here.
Eric

[HalfOunce]

I'd pull the cap off of it and make sure the mechanical advance is not stuck.
Btw you should keep this and your other thread together assuming this the same vehicle to avoid confusion!!!!!!!! Also make sure to check the timing on #1 plugwire lh side front aka drivers side front plug on a small block chevy with vac advance unhooked and plugged off @ the carb.

[oldbogie]

Originally Posted by eric32

Well I just hooked up my timing light again and I get the same thing. I just for giggles hooked it up to another spark plug wire to see what it did and I hooked it up to number six and the same thing 50 degrees at idle and goes up more when you rev it. Crap man I swear I always have bad luck with things and have to go through many things till you get it done. I will have to googe and hope someone else can help me out here of where to start. Thanks bogie for your input that leaves me some options of what's going on here.
Eric

What are the parts this engine is made from? Older than 1970 the zero degree mark is advanced 2 degrees ahead of the keyway. From 1970 to present it's 10 degrees. Mixing cranks, dampers, pointers, timing covers can get you all screwed up.

10-12 inches of idle vacuum sounds like a pretty hot cam, is this true?

Bogie

[eric32]

Well the crank I have is a scat 3.480 crank and a tci rattler balancer and the pointer that is matched to it. Myine is the 70's and up timing mark and my cam is a lunati voodoo hydraullic roller wich is a231/239 @ 50 duration cam so its a pretty stout cam. I will try to move my dizzy one tooth and see how it comes out.
Thanks
Eric

[eric32]

Hello guys well here is my find out with all the surging I had. First off thanks to all you guys and your help wich helped me diganose my problem. My timing light was showing 50 degrees at idle and it was 50 degrees at idle. I took the distributor back out and had it brought back up to TDC and got it to be one tooth back or something like that and had my wife bump the motor over till it fell in then it was at the number oneplug fire wire. I hooked it all back up and it was now showing only about 25 degrees at idle so I too the timing light out and set it at 18 initial with vacuum advance plugged and at 34 total at 2500 rpm. I took it out for a spin and 99 percent of the surging is gone and it runs awesome and the idle is still decent but was liking it with more timing at idle but don't want to do more. I still seem to have a slight miss here and there but other then that she is all done Thanks again to all you guys on here you all deserve to give yourselves a pat on the back
Eric