how to set up the timing?

[Anadinolin]

Can someone talk me through setting up the timing so she runs really really sweet?

iv put a whole crap load of stuff in her, so shes running almost like new, the last two things i have to do are put the new exhaust ring on and a new ignition set (HT leads, distribution cap, dizzy seal, rotor arm)

my friend said that i can change the timing around to help it run better than it currently is, jamesV70r said the other day you can advance the timing and retard it - so i guess that was what my friend was on about. any ideas or guides on this and what to look out for to get a decent balance between performance and such-like?

cheers in advance

Andrew

[Chris_C]

It depends what you mean by your question.

If any of the below is teaching you to suck eggs, I apologise.

Back in the day, when cars had distributors with points in them, you could rotate the body of the dizzy to adjust timing (i.e., you are moving the points relative to the cam). However, in your 400, you have electronic ignition. Instead of the points closing and making a spark when the cam goes round, there is a sensor on your flywheel that tells the electronic ignition when to make the spark.

So, yes, you can adjust the timing, moving that sensor will give an offset to the entire map. But, I really wouldn't. If the car has the correct ECU and you run the same head, valves, cams as stock, it's as good as it could be (as long as the timing belt when last done made sure all the moving parts were timed together correctly). The map that is in your car (I'm assuming it's one of the Fenix cars, rather than a Turbo (EZK) or carb'd (Renix) is a 3d set of values where the timing is changed based on load and RPM. Just giving it an offset will make one area marginally better, but screw all the rest. To give you a clue, the Fenix system in my 16V 340 is set to give a spark advance range between 4 and 42 degrees. Moving that sensor just effectively moves the entire map up or down.