Ignition timing questions????????

[badmix]

My truck seems to be suffering in the gas mileage department. ANyways. I wanted to check the carb and do the vacuum gauge tuning. I leaned the carb out a lil bit and then had to adjust the idle. The gauge then indicated incorrect ignition timing, so I decided to check it with a timing light. The Line on the Balancer was WAY off to the passenger side of the dial bar thingy. So I adjusted the dizzy and with the timing light. The emissions sticker said 4degrees of timing. On the bar thingy mounted to the engine itself. Ive got a peep hole and then the bar itself has 0, 4 & 8 with lines inbetween. Now am I to assume that 4 degrees of timing means I put the harmonic balancer line on the 4 pointer bar?? I did this and then had to do some carb adjusting, but I think ive got it all sorted out. yea for carb motors. . lol. Anyways, just want to make sure im doing this correctly.

 

[bigblock72]

Make sure you disconnect the line to the vacuum advance (if it has one). You should be able to set the timing up a little higher, somewhere in the 8-12 degree range. The higher advance will help gas milage and power, just don't go so high that it's hard to start or pings.

 

[badmix]

I forgot about the vacuum advance. I just went down. plug the hose going to vacuum advance and set timing to 8-9degrees. It seemed to run pretty good.Better than at 4 degrees. lol. So, ill just keep an eye on it and see how it runs.

 

[Cowboy_80]

The air/fuel ratio that you adjusted on the carb isn't going to gain you anything going down the road. That's really just an idle thing. You have to re-jet/needle it on the inside. Depending on the carb, it's a fairly simply task. Carter family carbs can be changed w/o removing it from the engine, not sure about Holley's.

A stock, non-performance GM is made to run at 8-12* advanced on 87 octane fuel. If you can, run full-synthetic oil. It has less friction, which improves fuel consumption. Might not be much, but every little bit helps. Keep fresh air cleaners on it.