Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines 216 L6 timing

49 chevy 1/2 ton 3speed timing is set by book, the octane selector at 0 steel ball in flywheel lines up with the pointer on flywheel housing. now where should I set the oct. selector for 87 oct. for good driving? or how do you set your timing on a 216 cid

I set mine a few degrees advanced when I had it. The compression is pretty low. Just run it up until it just starts to ping under hard acceleration and back it off a couple of degrees.

If you have it advanced too far it will buck against the starter. This may be your only indication that it is overadvanced as the compression is so low that it may not ping at all.

Baldy

Baldy you are 100% correct !

THANK YOU for your help. under distributor in my book it has timing at 5 BTDC so is the steel ball on the flywheel 5 BTDC or do I set the octane selector to 5 BTDC?

Set the timing on the ball with the octane selector at zero and adjust the octane selector as required.

Baldy