My 1988 K1500

[Biggershaft96]

Glad to hear shes back up and running, didnt take long lol

 

[7thdarkangel]

Glad to hear shes back up and running, didnt take long lol

Thanks. Most of the time was waiting on parts.

 

[7thdarkangel]

New brackets installed. Found a guy local parting a truck, picked them up for $30. This fixed the bowing issue with the accessories. Turns out the alternator was charging. Just had a bad body ground causing the gauge to read off.

Now I'm trying to dial in the timing. The cam wants a lot of initial so I'm going to try locking out the mechanical advance and giving it full timing. Also with the new intake, I'm running way too lean. On light/med acceleration the wide band is just about pegged lean until the secondaries open. Then it gets a little better but still not good. Ordering up a jet kit to play with and a mechanical lock for the distributor.

 

[Supercharged111]

Don't lock the distrubutor. What the motor really wants is less swing from initial to full advance. Stock starts retarded low then advances a shitload. All you should be after is a lot more initial and a little more total. I recurved a Ford distributor years ago like this and the car loved it. I put some heat shrink tubing over the little tower which meant the weight couldn't swing as far back and forth. That and some horsing with the springs got the timing in sooner and in a more reasonable amount.

 

[7thdarkangel]

Don't lock the distrubutor. What the motor really wants is less swing from initial to full advance. Stock starts retarded low then advances a shitload. All you should be after is a lot more initial and a little more total. I recurved a Ford distributor years ago like this and the car loved it. I put some heat shrink tubing over the little tower which meant the weight couldn't swing as far back and forth. That and some horsing with the springs got the timing in sooner and in a more reasonable amount.

That would be an ideal timing situation but with the HEI distributor these is no "good" way to do that with out spending weeks(when you have two small children one days work is the 2-3 hours you get at night) taking center plates and weight in and out to get the correct limit on advance. That's why I'im locking out the mechanical advance. We did the same thing on a 67 big block Camaro. Even with the adjust-ability of the Mallory distributor we got the best setup with the timing locked. Only down side is it fights the starter when trying to start the car when the engine is warm. I do have an idea for a changeable bushing to limit the timing in the HEI if the locked timing leaves some to be desired but we will see what happens this weekend.


That being said I am planing on moving to a MSD ignition box and distributor some time next year. That would allow the timing to be set exactly as needed.

 

[Supercharged111]

Is the HEI really that bad? I did it to that Pertronix converted points distributor in an afternoon. I think I limited it to 20 degrees of advance and I want to say that only required 1 or 2 pieces of heat shrink on that post.

 

[7thdarkangel]

The HEI is terrible for a aggressive cam. To limit the timing depends on the weights and center plate you use. If you search hard enough you can fine a chart with what combos do what. But the challenge is being able to find the correct parts. I toyed with the idea of machining my own center plate but I don’t have a spare distributor to play with at the moment. Others have used a screw or welded the slots but that changes the way the distributor works.


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[Supercharged111]

I'd have to see a pic. It sounds to me like the post I put shrink wrap around is the center plate you're referring to, and that there is no easy way to halfass it into doing what you want on that particular distributor. The one thing I never liked about that converted points distributor is I always felt the vacuum advance also added too much timing too easily. What about buying an aftermarket adjustable distributor with vacuum advance? I mean at this point it's a drop in the bucket.

 

[7thdarkangel]

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(Pic pulled from google)

I could put a "bushing" on the hole closest to the main plate but that's just a bandaid and will probably need to clearance the rotor.

I still think a custom center plate is the best option (aside from buying a better diz). i could easily use shims to figure out where the limit would be. Then just machine it. I only need about 12* mechanical advance if i go this way.

 

[Supercharged111]

Ahh, yeah, easiest/most ghetto thing to attempt there might be to slap a small weld bead on the center piece. Here's what I was working with, just built up the post above the top 13R a little to limit advance. Super quick and easy.

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Now that I'm looking at that Chevy pic again, it looks like the curve isn't linear. Nifty.