Tigers List Archive

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Mail From: Sage <(email redacted)>

Sunbeamers:
As usual, I have a couple more questions.

What's the consensus on what initial timing should be on a Tiger? The
shop manual says 6 degrees BTDC at 500 RPM. Is this about right? Is
there a good starting point from, say, 800 RPM? What's the maximum
advance I should aim for when I rev up the engine? It's a "medium" tune
Ford 289.

In messing about with my timing by "feel", I've made the car harder to
start so, out comes the timing light tommorow to see where it actually
is. With my alternator on the left side, there's not enough room to see
down to the timing marks, but I was given the idea to take the
alternator out temporarily while setting the timing, which will give me
a clear shot with the timing light. How long can I run the car without
the alternator hooked up before the battery runs down?

And, by the way, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Steve Sage

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Mail From: "Bob Palmer" <(email redacted)>

Steve,

The shop manual applies to a vacuum advance distributor, plus it is set
rather conservatively. For most 260's/289's with a mechanical advance; i.e.,
dual-point etc, the initial advance should be 16 degrees with a full 36
degrees of advance in by 2,500 rpm. You will probably need to replace the
centrifugal counterweight springs with softer ones to get the advance to
come in that quickly. The Ford dual-point allows 20 degrees of mechanical
advance. Other distributors allow you to adjust the amount of advance, but
20-25 degrees is probably best. I would focus primarily on the maximum
advance and the rpm it comes in at. Unless you change the advance range of
the distributor, that will also determine your initial advance, so don't
worry about whether you are idling at 500 or 800 rpm. Also, the drain on the
battery is not great, so I wouldn't worry about that either. On the other
hand, don't let the loose wires short to ground or get caught in the fan.

Bob Palmer
(email redacted)
(email redacted)

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Mail From: "ron fraser" <(email redacted)>

Steve
At 800 rpm 8 or 9 degrees would be my guess. I normally set my
initial advance to 9 degrees; this is for my stock 260, 2 bbl engine. A
general rule for total initial + mechanical advance is maximum = 38 degrees.
Vacuum advance can add in to give 50 degrees or more of total advance.

If you are using a stock Ford Distributor I could check the advance
curves I have listings for and tell you what your advance curve was
originally. I just need the numbers stamped on the distributor case.

This is where a dial back timing light comes in handy. You can
easily check the advance curve with it. You can check mechanical and total
advance separately which subtracts to give you vacuum advance thus you can
tell exactly what each part of your distributor is doing through the rpm
range.

Put a volt meter across the battery to monitor its state of charge. I
prefer not to let it go below 11 volts before charging it back up.

Ron Fraser and Happy New Year to everyone

-----Original Message-----
From: (email redacted) [mailtoemail redacted)] On
Behalf Of Sage
Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2004 4:01 AM
To: Tiger Mailing List
Subject: Timing Question

Sunbeamers:
As usual, I have a couple more questions.

What's the consensus on what initial timing should be on a Tiger? The
shop manual says 6 degrees BTDC at 500 RPM. Is this about right? Is
there a good starting point from, say, 800 RPM? What's the maximum
advance I should aim for when I rev up the engine? It's a "medium" tune
Ford 289.

In messing about with my timing by "feel", I've made the car harder to
start so, out comes the timing light tommorow to see where it actually
is. With my alternator on the left side, there's not enough room to see
down to the timing marks, but I was given the idea to take the
alternator out temporarily while setting the timing, which will give me
a clear shot with the timing light. How long can I run the car without
the alternator hooked up before the battery runs down?

And, by the way, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Steve Sage



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This read-only message was archived from a public mail list.
Mail From: "Bob Palmer" <(email redacted)>

Ron, Steve,

Here is a link to a Crane article that is informative on this topic. Vacuum
advance allows the engine run much more advanced (and more efficiently) at
light throttle than with only mechanical advance. When you open the
throttle, the vacuum level decreases and the advance drops back into the 36
degree range to avoid pinging.

64.90.9.168/cranecams/pdf/272e.pdf

Bob Palmer
(email redacted)
(email redacted)

This read-only message was archived from a public mail list.
Mail From: (email redacted)

Steve

Try this trick if you can't see the timing marks. Set the zero
mark at the pointer. Then look on the other side where you
can shoot the timing gun and have a fixed point of reference.
This is your new 0 mark. Mark the appropriate Before and
After marks and your're all set. Why fight the alternator for
the next several years.

Dave Johnson