Opinions-- Fuel or timing?

[BigBro74]

weigh your fuel. just did a $3k lesson. 2nd pull to 6500. not to peak hp yet. bit a ring. went back today, everything the same except fuel. made eleven pulls. 5 pulls to 7k. our original fuel did not weigh as specified. check your octane.

on a similar line- are you running this on e-85?

and -were the new pistons to increase compression?

4 laps is not much...............

[Racer18]

UPDATE-- Got everything repaired, replaced, etc. Running on test stand, timing is everywhere. Checked cam stop, good. Checked backlash at rotor, good. Set timing again at 33, let engine warm up, recheck timing- 44! Checked all grounds, wiring, etc, nothing. Got a distributor from another engine, boom- timing perfect, steady as a rock, no movement. Put original back in, timing backs up about 6 degrees with rpm, starts climbing at idle. Will keep advancing on its own at idle. Problem is obviously in the distributor. magnet tests good, gap is right. Only thing that seems strange is- the distributor shaft is magnetized! It is north on one end, south on the other, zero about center. Is this normal? I am going to demagnetize it and try again. What would cause this?

[NormS]

The best think to do with that distributor, is to give the "float test". Throw it into the nearest body of water(lake, river, whatever). If it floats, fish it out and try it again. If it sinks, leave it there. It already fried the engine once... do you want to risk that again?

[Racer18]

HAHA Norm! Maybe ship it to you and you can toss it in a real body of water. Wabash river is the closest thing we have LOL

[NormS]

How about Lake Michigan? At the deepest point?

[Racer18]

Oh- Don't waste your time calling MSD....clueless. They tried to say it was my timing light. After changing the distributor and the problem goes away? I dont think so.

[NormS]

Yes, I have found that MSD's failure analysis for their products is sorely lacking.I think they have the attitude that every failed component is the customer's fault.

[fdicrasto]

On some MSD ignitions, if the 2 wire connector and connecting harness somehow have the wires reversed, the timing will jump all over the place.

[Racer18]

UPDATE**- found it! Customer owns a fancy dial type timing light. Customer does not understand how to use said timing light. He set his light on 32 degrees, then cranked the distributor until 32 lined up with the pointer. We now know that 64 degrees of timing takes about 1 lap to melt the entire top end. When I asked him why he moved the timing so much, he had no answer. I also asked if it turned over hard, he said oh yea, we had to get a bigger battery . Can't make this stuff up! Thanks for everyone's input, all were right.

[FC-Pilot]

So he melted it down again? Oh good heavens.

Paul

[Racer18]

No, hes raced it several times since, I found out from his helper about the timing light shenanigans

[jake197000]

ya i like how they alwasys say.......oh no i shut it off before it got hot.

[jmarkaudio]

Different ignition than when it left the shop? Digital will be different than analog with the same crank trigger or distributor setting...