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Ignition Timing

Last post 10-21-2009, 11:10 AM by lcjutila. 2 replies.
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  •  10-19-2009, 6:28 PM 21436

    Ignition Timing

    I have a 62 MKII deluxe roadster 1622 cc. Fully restored with a NOS 1622 short block, crane Road cam, and head is ported, polished. Standard SU 1 1/2" carbs. Pertronix Ignition. Car is overheating at highway speeds. I need to know what should the timing be. Stock would be static 7 deg BTDC, and 29-31 deg advance. [per MGA Twin cam group]. Does this change when you use a road cam? If so what do we use? The rad has an extra cooling row. There is a proper fan blade plus shroud, and the felt air dam over the rad is in place. does not overheat at low speeds. There is an oil cooler in front of the rad[std. equipment on a late Deluxe].

    Can anyone help? Paul M 

  •  10-20-2009, 10:07 AM 21438 in reply to 21436

    Re: Ignition Timing

    Paul-

    Why not try advancing the timing to 10deg btdc static and see if that helps. Pay attention to the possibility of Knocking/pinking. This would be most noticeable under load. If it doesn't help, change it back. When setting up a car I have under similar circumstances I used a testing method as follows:

    1. Warm up engine to operating temperature.

    2. Disconnect and plug vacuum advance.

    3. Set timing slightly advanced from stock.

    4. Make strong acceleration run under load listening for pinking/knocking.

    5. Advance timing until very mild pinking/knocking.

    6. Back off one or two degrees.

    7. Reattach vacuum advance  and test drive.

    Hope this works.

    Also, it could be that after you added all the performance goodies your carb needle is too lean. I wonder if you could take the car out at highway speed and watch it overheat slightly and try pulling out the choke a little to enrich the mixture slightly to see if the problem goes away. I'm not sure this is a valid test but it seems logical.

     

    LCJUTILA 

  •  10-21-2009, 11:10 AM 21453 in reply to 21436

    Re: Ignition Timing

    Paul-

    A few more thoughts/questions. Does your car have a thermostat installed? Leaving it out can cause the coolant to flow too fast through the radiator and not have a chance to cool causing the engine to overheat. Also, too much/ improper coolant mixture can cause cavitation in the water pump at higher r.p.m.which inhibits circulation and can lead to over heating. Never go much over 50% on coolant/anti-freeze.

     

    LCJUTILA