Hi All,

Can anyone advise the optimum timing for a pinto?

Standard 2.0 Pinto
Distributor with Luminition Magnetronic kit

If you need any more details let me know.

Cheers

Dan

Standard would be about 8° btdc. I would say start there and then try advancing it a bit at a time until it pinks under load then back it off a little.

I usually find 10o btdc has worked well for me in the past, had cortinas, capris & sierras all have run fine at that, but as Dingz says start at 8o and tinker with it a bit.

The timing at idle or static is not that important, its the total timing that's critical. Disconnect the vacuum advance and rev the engine to 4000rpm, set the timing at 36 deg at 4000rpm, it will probably fall back to 12 deg ish at idle. If you find it pinks leave the vacuum disconnected.

Yup that's how to do it ^^^

I think I set mine to 36 or 38 deg at 3850rpm (from memory a which is unreliable on this occasion) then measured the static which I think was about 10-11 which was spot on.

I measured the circumference of the crank pulley by wrapping tape aroun it then divided it to get a measurement per degree, then cut a piece of tape corresponding to 38deg in length and put it on the pulley from tdc mark then painted a line across in tippex and timed it to that mark.

Satic timing is important when it causes starting problems, start experimenting from 8 degrees at idle but if you run into pinking or the engine becomes reluctant to turn over on the starter you need to retard until the symptoms stop.

The way to test for pinking is with engine full warmed up try pulling from 1500 to 2500 at full throttle in a high gear, pinking can be heard as a tinkling sound.


The centrifugal advance mechanism mechanical distributors wear it sometimes becomes necessary to retard the ignition from the OEM settings which isn't good for performance at higher RPM.



[Edited on 8/5/13 by britishtrident]

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Originally posted by britishtrident
Satic timing is important when it causes starting problems, start experimenting from 8 degrees at idle but if you run into pinking or the engine becomes reluctant to turn over on the starter you need to retard until the symptoms stop.


The centrifugal advance mechanism mechanical distributors wear it sometimes becomes necessary to retard the ignition from the OEM settings which isn't good for performance at higher RPM.

you should not have any problem starting a stock pinto with stock CR upto 18 degrees static.

The dizzys do wear, that's another reason to set the timing at high RPM when the timing is all in and not at idle.

pinking problems can happen if the vacuum advance is retained as the stock weber carb vac take off has a high vacuum signal (and the advance capsule is quite sensitive) nearly to full throttle so you can over advance the engine at light/medium load.

you can leave the vac off or modify the dizzy so the vacuum capsule is limited to max 6 degrees by adding a physical stop to the mechanism, there are MPG gains to be had with the vacuum in use.

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