pinging with +25 advance

[LaGrasta]

I adjusted the timing over the weekend and it seems to be running well, but now I'm back to the pinging under acceleration. If the timing isn't near 25, it just doesn't launch off the line right. In addition, when I start it, it seems to hesitate before it cranks.
Any suggestions? Should I dump a valve cleaner in the fuel?

 

[Anonymous]

Have you got any more details? What distributor are you running? Are you talking 25 deg initial advance? Or is that the total timing you are quoting? Are you running vacuum advance?
Doug

 

[LaGrasta]

It's a stock 170 distributer. I do have Pertronix installed though with a 40,000 coil and plugs gapped at 50 along with Accel 8mm wires.

 

[Anonymous]

With that much initial you might be getting kickback from the starter. Doug asked if the 25 degrees was with the vacuum line plugged. Is that the loadamatic carb? Have you checked to see if your balancer has slipped. 14 seems to be about all I can run without starter kickback, although I have no pinging at 16. Maybe you have a vacuum leak.

 

[LaGrasta]

Vacume line plugged, no slipping balancer as far as I can tell and no vacume leaks. I was thinking it might be kick back from the starter too.

As far as running in the +25 range, I was really questioning that early on, but I found numerous people on the board running that advance. I even double checked to make sure my distributor wasn't off a tooth.

 

[Anonymous]

I think I was running that much advance myself at one time, when I timed it by ear because it did not run properly at the factory specs. However, when I dug into it, I found out the vacuum can on my distributor was not working, so the initial advance was all that I was getting. An initial advance of 25 deg is very high. I would suspect you are getting little if any contribution from the vac advance (assuming you have it hooked up). If the engine is basically stock and does not run well at factory specs, that should send up a red flag that something is wrong. I think you would be very pleased with a later model distributor that has the centrifugal and vacuum advance mechanisms.
Doug

 

[Anonymous]

Without the vacuum advance, you basically have no spark curve. You have a flat 25* of timing (if indeed you balancer is correct).

A later distributor with mechanical and vacuum advance would help if not solve your problem, however, there is one problem.

Your '63 engine uses a 1/4" oil pump driveshaft driven from the distributor. In order to use a later distributor, you will need to change your oil pump and driveshaft to a 5/16" drive unit. I'm also not sure as to whether the later pump or the later distributor will even fit your old block.

 

[LaGrasta]

The car is now back at Todd Fields getting some more retro brake work done(disc&booster). When I get it back, I'll start from scratch and time it again. At that point, I'll see where I go and start looking into some of these things mentioned. Thanks guys.