I drove my pinto powered locost up and down my street a few times this evening, everything seems to work ok.

Except,……….

When driving the engine ran like a bag of spanners, missing, back firing etc, but runs ok on tick over and will start on the flick of the key.

I hoping it’s the ignition timing that’s all to cock as the distributor has been removed, I know the cam timing is ok as I fitted a new cam belt when the engine was on the bench.

So my question is:- Does any one have a idiot guide to setting ignition the timing on a carburettor (40 DCOE x2) Pinto.

Cheers in advance,

The Baron.

You need to buy a 'strobe gun' = minimum requirement.

I think it also needs to be 10/11 degrees @ TDC - you can check on idle.

If you get that bit right - then it should be pretty smooth from there.

I'm an idiot and i watched my mate do it - hence instructions above

Is it sluggish to pick up when you floor the accelerator? I've got that problem at the mo, engine runs fine on idle, but press your foot down and it coughs, splutters, backfires, farts then eventually dies, tickle the pedal and its ok.

I'm thinking that mines an over fueling problem, dunno if your could be a similar thing. Strong smell of unburnt fuel when you turn off the car.

Every little helps I guess
Chris

Has it been a long time since it was last run or been left standing for long periods? Could be that the distributor advance weights are sticking causing retarded ignition timing. Fairly common on Bosch distributors.

Yes to general stuff flyingkiwi mentions, but I havent noticed a strong smell of fuel.

Cheers,

The Baron

yes in answer to the question from rusty nuts.

How do free them up if ty are stuck?

Cheers,

The Baron

[Edited on 27/4/06 by The Baron]

Take the base plate off , use penetrating oil/ WD 40 on the pivot points for the advance weights and down the spindle , work until free. In severe case it's possible to dismantle shaft(, the cam/sensor section is held on with a small circlip ) polish siezed surfaces , lubricate and rebuild . The spindle should have a few drops of oil applied to the felt pad beneath the rotor arm every service which helps stop it siezing . After refitting set timing using strobe to around 10 degrees BTDC.

Timing at idle varies between 10 and 20deg BTDC dependant on the duration of the camshaft fitted.

Full mechanical advance should be 38deg BTDC on a pinto. A standard distributor on a tuned engine will give you too much, but can be modified to reduce it.

To check it you need a strobe (not expensive).

David

How old is the petrol you are using, this unleaded stuff seems to go off quite quickly?

This what i did. Ported head and 285 cam. 38dgas carb. Std 2.0 bottom end.

Before SVA i tried to be clever and set it up by ear - what a joke. Never ran right. Ticked over but horrendous on the road. Checked with basic tachostrobe and i must have been 30 - 40 deg advanced at tickover - first lesson you cant set it up without a strobe! Oh and when you get a strobe you wonder what all the fuss was about cos its so easy.

I bought a Snap On digital advance timing light off ebay for £30 (total bargain). Firstly engine static timing was checked and all OK. Dizzy was brand new electronic so all works perfectly.

I pulled the vac pipe off dizzy and set the revs to 3,000. Set the strobe to 28degs and lined up the TDC timing marks (this is the beauty of advance timing lights - you set the advance on the gun and the engine marks to TDC - its all tricks of the light!, snap-on unit also has handy tacho). This gave me 12deg at 850rpm which is a good starting point for future fine tuning. Replace vacuum pipe.

I then went to garage and set the CO to approx 3%.

Carb was already jetted etc so no mods required other than to ensure the two mixture screws were same turns each (roughly balanced).


Car runs very well with no pinking. i will probs try 30deg at 3,000 revs next. Reason i havent set it to the recommended max advance of 38 deg is that i cant be sure with the DGAS that it doesnt lean off at high revs - hence 28deg at the mo is a safe setting. Reason for this is that i havent cut out the bonnet for the filter due to imminent bike carb conversion so have an airflow issue at the mo.

When i fit the megajolt i can fiddle with the settings at several load points to further fine tune the ignition timing with the lap top.