Help On Timing light

Hi Guys,

Ok I know how to set the timing on my engine, the problem I have is my timing light, I have a harbor freight timing light, its nice piece value for money. Works nice but this is my problem.

Click on the below link and you will see the one I have, below picture is same as my timing light.

Xenon Advance Timing Light

The light is spec'ed at 0 - 60 degrees, great! But my one turns below 0 by about 10 degrees.


See how the we pointer is at 0 on this one, my one turns below zero to that we mark under the D, so maybe that D is where zero is on my one and 0 is 10 degrees, so I dial in 36 but it could actually be at 26 degrees, Has anyone else got one of these lights and does the we pointer go below zero?

What makes me think there is a problem is that I had my engine at 40 degrees and it didn't pink/ping at all, at 40 it should of been pinging, I suspect I wasn't at 40 I was at 30 as my light is approx 10 degrees out.

By the way if I was at 26 degrees how much down on power would the engine be??

Thanks
Bruce

Harbor Freight is a great place to get “cheap tools”.

I do like the adjustable timing lights (in general) but with tools, I like to get quality items that I can hand down to my kids after I push up daises.

If I needed one in a pinch (like side of road, out of town) I would use Harbor Freights – but otherwise, no.

Note: there is a Harbor Freight store about a mile from where I live at and I do frequent it about once every couple of months or so, but not for tools for accuracy.

Sorry man, The Harbor Freight stuff can be more trouble than the small price paid for tools you need to be dead right with. If you can do a verification on a known good engine and then estalish your marks on the gun, you might be able to go forward. Otherwise you may be getting in trouble. I have a non dial gun which I could get in the ball park with and then get over to the fancy dial gun. That's how'd I would try it first.

Going to catch up with my mechanic buddy tomorrow who has a timing light which he trusts, we will use it to calibrate my timing light, eg set advance at 36/37 and then set my mine to read the same! Will keep you posted!

Hope to get to the bottom of this later on today, check out the pics I took of the timing light adjustment, goes below zero and past 60.

You'll know for sure when comparing to a known good light BUT,,,,,,,,my guess is zero really is zero and 60 really is 60 since it goes past each by the same amount.

Probably the below zero (notice the line under the "D") is 10*ATDC and the other end of the scale is 70*BTDC

This is my ancient old OTC light that quit working long ago. The dial does the same thing and was supposed to.

Why do I still have a broken timing light laying around you ask? No idea and just tossed it in the trash bin it's sitting on for the pictures

Hi guys,

OK my car was at 36 degrees, 16 at idle, so I had it set correct, asked my friend why it didn't take off fast, he said its the cam, he said your at 9 and not 25 vac so when you nail it the airspeed slows down, he said 2 options, different cam or stall converter. He said for it to be at 9 the cam has a fair bit of duration.

Yes, 9" of vacuum at idle is low. With a cam like that, you won't have much torque at low rpm. A milder cam would be the best way to go vs a high stall converter for a car set up as your is.