1948 Plymouth Running A Little Hot

[Rodney Bullock]

I have been working on this 1948 Plymouth a friend of mine has, It has dual carbs and dual exhaust. He made a timing line and I set the timing to this line however the car pings going up hill. I set it 2 degress before top dead. We then turned it back 2 degress and it still pinged. We sent the dist. to then and now because it was eating points(bushings bad) Now if we can just get the timing right. I asked him to clean the damper however he says the line is just not there. It must be...right. I mean I had to clean mine twice before I saw it. We tried to put it on top dead center using the plug on the rear of the block head. I checked the vac. advance, I'm I missing something? Big car show this week end I would hate for him to miss it. 

[Niel Hoback]

   When you use the hole in the head over #6 and you don't find the mark, it may mean that the rubber inside the damper has slipped and  the mark could be anywhere.  Use a little brass wire brush to scrub the OD of the damper, the marks gotta be there somewhere.

[Don Coatney]

Rodney;

Retard the timing until it quits pinging and you should be good to go. Nice looking car.

[Dave72dt]

All an arbitrary line will do is reference how much you advance or retard the timing and won't tell you where TDC is.  Someone will have to clean the dampner.   

[Rodney Bullock]

I had to do an old trick I learned a while back. I line is not there the damper is very rusty. We wire brushed it and it's clean. I just found a sweet spot for the motor. The car ran very well. I then test drove it. it had great power and no ping. Then I advanced it until it pinged then backed off 2 degress and it ran perfect. Now he has no ping and it runs even. I never found the mark.  

Edited April 24, 2013 by Rodney Bullock

[Niel Hoback]

  I suggest you make a mark now, so that you will have a reference for the next time.

[Mark Haymond]

Quick tip> The damper is most easily reached from underneath the car for cleaning and line painting. It sure beats scraping your knuckles on the fan blade and radiator fins from above..