I wouldn't get too hung up on the SSS cam thing. The SSS cam was fairly tame. There are hundreads of different grinds that get ground onto A series camshafts.

Seems to occur with some modified engines. Let's go back to first principles. If the spark needs all that extra time to ignite the mixture, what does that tells us about what's going on in the head? Why would a mixture need extra time to burn? Too lean, too rich, or just too much of it?

CM

when you put the pedal to the metal does it bog down or take off? me and my old man got the white out and timed it to near perfection but when we advanced it we got a far better response and it idled a @#$%load better. does the engine hunt at all?

Quote:You're assuming that the actual amount of advance is the same as the indicated amount of advance.

Doing it by the numbers is really the only way. Get No. 1 Piston at TDC, & I don't mean approximately, using a piston stop device in the plug hole & a degree wheel. Once true TDC has been established & properly marked, then proper tests can be done, but not before.

Excessively rich mixtures leave large quantities of black smoke at the tailpipe & give apalling fuel economy while excessively lean mixtures backfire a lot through the carb & the engine develops low power. No amount of timing advance is going to disguise that.

Strange that beattie. I think from memory, I used a GT40r coil (strange looking thing) for mine as well.

I dont think that coil would have any bearing on the advance, but its an uncanny coincidence...

Dodgeman, it isn't spewing black smoke, and occasionally backfires, so I'll check for excessively lean. The jet sizes in the Dellortos are supposedly correct, but are way bigger than those indicated by a jetting program, as are the venturis. When I put my foot down it bogs.

Yeh i was thinking that the coil wouldnt do much to timing either.

It has nothing to do with fuel either. It started doing it with a A12 carby and i didnt touch the timing when i put the 32/36 on.

I think its all as simple as there is a bunch of odd crank pulls out there that mucks up the mark. When me and my dad went thru it all we made sure of cam timing, ign timing etc etc. To look where the rotor button lines up to the cap at spark appears perfectly normal.