Timing question

[Niel Hoback]

It is a common misconception that you need to remove the vacuum supply before doing a timing adjustment. There is no vacuum supplied to the advance unit with the throttle at idle. Check your shop manual.

[fatFreddie]

It is a common misconception that you need to remove the vacuum supply before doing a timing adjustment. There is no vacuum supplied to the advance unit with the throttle at idle. Check your shop manual.

Nope.... that is a misconception as the only way to insure NO VACUUM is to DISCONNECT. It is almost impossible to guarantee that the throttle plate is blocking off the vacumm port (slot) at idle. Worn parts cause this. Smallest vacuum will move the advance. Check it out for your self...put a vacuum gauge on the line and see!!!

[Niel Hoback]

I just follow Ma Mopar's instructions and it works. I think if that was needed, it would say so in the shop manual, after all, they designed and built it.

[Niel Hoback]

OK, I just checked for vacuum at the port. At idle there is NO vacuum present. If you have a vacuum signal at idle, your idle is too high. The vacuum port is above the throttle plate. As you open the throttle, the port is uncovered and allows air to be pulled from the advance unit. Set your idle at specs and you should have no vacuum at the port. This is why the Mopar manual does not instruct you to disconnet the vacuum signal line.

[Tom Skinner]

I did the rubber hose Vacumn Line connect like Don on my 1948 Chrysler.

It makes it much easier to tweak the timing with the resistance from the Steel Line gone. The distributor lifts out easy to set points etc.. Just be sure your a Top Dead Center on #1 when you pull it out.

Tom

[Don Coatney]

OK, I just checked for vacuum at the port. At idle there is NO vacuum present. If you have a vacuum signal at idle, your idle is too high. The vacuum port is above the throttle plate. As you open the throttle, the port is uncovered and allows air to be pulled from the advance unit. Set your idle at specs and you should have no vacuum at the port. This is why the Mopar manual does not instruct you to disconnet the vacuum signal line.

Great information Niel. I retract my "good point" statment made earlier in this thread. Thanks for doing the research!

[T120]

I suggest you find a vacuum tester such as pictured below. If you use a tester that screws into the spark plug hole use caution that the threaded insert does not make contact with the intake valve as damage can occur.

Don,I realize you meant "compression" tester (a typo)

..I would also suggest getting a remote starter button..handy when doing compression checks

[Don Coatney]

I stand corrected.

[lelshaddai]

OK, I performed the compression test. I believe I did it correctly. The engine turn over at least 5 times until I got a steady reading. Here are the findings. They do not look good.

#1 90

#2 60

#3 97

#4 65

#5 70

#6 45

All seemed to hold pressure. I did this with all the plugs out. Does that make a difference?

I am going to perform the oil test next like the manual describes.

[greg g]

looks like worn rings on all but 1 and 3.

[Tom Skinner]

Lelshaddai,

Sometimes if you run the engine until warm, then turn it off and retorque the head bolts to 65-70 ft lbs. It helps.

I changed my plugs and smelled a trace of anti-freeze on them, also when I warmed up the car the tailpipe spit out what seemed to me a bit more condensation than it should have as well as having white smoke during that warm up time. I found my headbolts around #1, and #2 cylinders were "Loose".

They torqued down from 40-45lbs to 65lbs and the smell of anti freeze on my plugs went away as well as the white smoke at warm up. quite a few bolts weren't near torqued enough. Remember warm the engine if its a cast iron head and also use the proper torque sequence in your Service Manual. I'm not saying this will fix your compression issues but may somehow be part of a good tune up process that might improve the way your engine runs. Greg may be right and its probably worn rings.

Tom

Edited September 22, 2012 by Tom Skinner
spelling

[JIPJOBXX]

Your question about the hose Idea? Well if its blowby than go for it at least you won't have that foul smell of burnt oil inside the car. I did this with a 57 Plymouth many, many years ago and it worked!!! I would hope with all this help your getting here is not to over the top for you. Even with the cyclinder pressures you are getting you should be able to get it timed. No one here has suggest a timming light yet and to me that is a real simple way of telling if your engine is at the correct timming mark. But you do haft to clean up the crank pulley and paint a white mark on the timing mark. This will show you when the engine is running weather your ahead of your timming or behind and maybe just maybe right on!!!!

[lelshaddai]

I used both the vacuum method and timing light. It runs fine. It is at 500 rpm with 16 lbs of vacuum. The timing right now is at 0 tdc. That is where the vacuum was the best and I ran out of adjustment. I am still trying to loosen the other adjustment on the distrib. I did a wet compression test and had the pressure increase from 15-20 lbs. The blo-by is not too bad at idle, it just looks like a fog following at speed. It really gets in the cab. That was the idea of the extension hose out the back. I will rebuild next summer. For now I was just going to drive it. I steam cleaned the inside through the carb and have added Mystery oil in the oil. There are no pulsations when you place your hand on the oil fill tube while running. The engine sat a long time. The blo-by is getting worse as I run it longer. I can live with it but wife does not like it much. She starts right up and runs smooth at idle and on acceleration. Just a lot of fog I would like to she out the back.

[Rusty O'Toole]

"Will it cause any damage if I run a tube from the ventilation tube out the back of the car to send the smoke out? "

I've seen this tried. It seemed to result in more oil sucked out of the engine.

Take off the road draft tube and clean it out. Put the ventilation system back to stock.

Use 15W30 oil and keep the level a little low. Not below the fill line of course but don't fill it all the way.

This will minimize oil burning but if your engine is worn I'm afraid there is no real cure except an overhaul or rebuild.

If a full rebuild is out of the question, and the engine has good oil pressure and not too many miles you can do a ring and valve job with the engine in the car. You will need to take it to an auto machine shop to have the valves done, take out the pistons, hone the cylinders and fit new rings. At one time this was a standard overhaul procedure on your engine.

[lelshaddai]

I cleaned the tube and filter a couple of months ago. The engine has 94000 miles on it. Since rescuing it from the desert after sitting for over 20-30 years I have driven it about 60-70 miles. It is smoking more now than at first. The smoke comes in the cab. I really need to plug the holes where the cables run through. Is there a good product to do this with? I will probably take the engine out next summer. If extending the tube just burns more oil would it still work if I just monitor the oil level? I will not be driving it that much.