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Setting max advance and curve, pinto dissy
gunman - 5/3/12 at 06:40 PM

I've been doing a bit of reading online (can be quite dangerous) about the timing on a pinto engine. I haven't checked mine yet, just wondering on the process. From what I can work out my idle advance needs to be 12 degrees plus. Then I'll have too much max advance. I have come accross articles describing dismantling the dissy and modding the advance stop and changing the springs to alter the timing curve.

My question is am I likely to bugger the dissy if I attempt this? Have many of you done this or just gone for the megajolt solution?

Cheers.

sjmatthews - 5/3/12 at 06:56 PM

Have a look at Dave Andrew's site. See 'ignition timing for modified engines' page...

http://www.dvandrews.co.uk/

It'll be a case of patience, and trial and error.

Excessive advance can kill an engine, but you can check it with a timing light easily enough.

gunman - 5/3/12 at 07:05 PM

Thanks, that's one of the articles I read, I (think) know the theory, just worried about doing it and busting my dissy. From those that may have done it, is it difficult to take the dissy apart? Maybe a practice run on a spare dissy (if I can find one).

Cheers

snapper - 5/3/12 at 09:03 PM

There is an article on the NW Hoodies web site that may help.
What you want to do is set static at 12 degrees detach vacuum advance then run up the engine and with a timing light find max advance.
Your aiming for 36 to 38 degrees at 3600 rpm.
There are stops in the dizzy that can be bent in to stop maximum advance
springs can Be bought that are weaker allowing max advance early, you may need this as you are effectively steepening the advance curve.

I have fitted an FR32 cam and now an RL31 both need a higher static advance and a steeper ramp but I fitted Megajolt soo much easier to change the advance curve.

gunman - 7/3/12 at 09:56 AM

I had a quick check last night at the timing as my new gun arrived. Timing at tickover is 8 degrees (standard spec) but max advance stopped at 28.

I now have the idle advanced to 14 and max is hitting 34. Maybe the dissy has been modded before??

Max advance is still over 4,000rpm tho, I haven;t tried to change this yet.

BaileyPerformance - 7/3/12 at 10:10 AM

quote:
Originally posted by gunman
I had a quick check last night at the timing as my new gun arrived. Timing at tickover is 8 degrees (standard spec) but max advance stopped at 28.

I now have the idle advanced to 14 and max is hitting 34. Maybe the dissy has been modded before??

Max advance is still over 4,000rpm tho, I haven;t tried to change this yet.


Hi,

All Pinto we have tuned like between 34 and 36 deg of timing (TOTAL). the stock dizzy does just about do the job (assuming its a late one) Disconnect the vacuum and LEAVE DISCONNECTED (do not use again)
Set the timing at 34deg at 4000RPM, rev the engine to 5000RPM to test 34 is the maximum attainable. Then check the timing at idle, you should see between 12 and 16 deg. A high initial timing figure is a good thing as it will help throttle response, the only bad thing with a high static is it can effect starting. (kickback on the starter) If this happens you will need to reduce the timing until the engine starts cleanly.

Cheers Dale.

MikeRJ - 7/3/12 at 10:21 AM

quote:
Originally posted by BaileyPerformance
All Pinto we have tuned like between 34 and 36 deg of timing (TOTAL). the stock dizzy does just about do the job (assuming its a late one) Disconnect the vacuum and LEAVE DISCONNECTED (do not use again)


Running with no vacuum advance really hurts fuel economy. For a road car some kind of load sensing is a good idea for ignition timing.

BaileyPerformance - 7/3/12 at 03:04 PM

quote:
Originally posted by MikeRJ
quote:
Originally posted by BaileyPerformance
All Pinto we have tuned like between 34 and 36 deg of timing (TOTAL). the stock dizzy does just about do the job (assuming its a late one) Disconnect the vacuum and LEAVE DISCONNECTED (do not use again)


Running with no vacuum advance really hurts fuel economy. For a road car some kind of load sensing is a good idea for ignition timing.


Agreed, but if you set up the dizzy as i have explained using the vac advance will add too much timing, almost to the point of misfire.
A way around this is to add a stop to the vac unit so it cannot add no more than 6 degrees, the factory dizzy has very little mechanical advance as standard, but alot of vac advance, this is not what you want for a performance engine, the vac advance should ONLY add timing at very light throttle.

Cheers Dale.

gunman - 7/3/12 at 03:24 PM

My vac advance isnn't connected to anything and I cant honestly see anywhere it could be. I'm not too worried about economy (within reason), my daily driver gets me 19mpg on average so I'm used to it.

I'll get another look at it over the next couple of days, thanks for the advice.

BaileyPerformance - 7/3/12 at 04:48 PM

quote:
Originally posted by gunman
My vac advance isnn't connected to anything and I cant honestly see anywhere it could be. I'm not too worried about economy (within reason), my daily driver gets me 19mpg on average so I'm used to it.

I'll get another look at it over the next couple of days, thanks for the advice.


If you set the total timing as i have described you will probably find the performance and MPG will improve!
Win win!!