RE: [Chrysler300] Distributor

[Ryan Hill <ryan_hillc300@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Factory specs are no more than a suggestion of where your engine may run best. Fuel, altitude, ambient temperature, running temp, carbon build-up, and the overall condition of your engine in general, all contribute to where you'll find your best tune. Rule of thumb with ignition timing (for me) is to set the timing as advanced as possible without encountering detonation (ping). If it pings under normal to heavy load, retard the timing until it doesn't. You will probably find your best performance there.

 

Because one thing often affects another, you sometimes need to adjust the dwell (by points gap) and air/fuel/idle settings if you move the timing very far. If you haven't already done so during a rebuild, check the bushings in the distributor and the timing mark on the balancer against TDC.

 

Hope this helps. It works for me. 

Ryan Hill 
 



To: Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From: tdcox@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tue, 21 May 2013 16:52:13 -0400
Subject: [Chrysler300] Distributor

  



Since rebuilding my engine in the F, I am getting pinging when accelerating and when climbing hills. Carbs and timing are set according to factory specs; do you think my distributor needs to be recurved? Does anyone in the club know someone that can do this?

Tom Cox

This is an old posting on the listserver:

Distributor/Timing

In 1996, John Characky rebuilt my engine and we put late model 440 heads (452 unleaded) on it. With those, I set the timing at 12 degrees BTDC. As the years passed by, I gradually had to back off on my timing and as recently as last October, I set the timing at 5 degrees BTDC. Well, I had purchased a spare distributor at Spring Fling and decided to install a Pertronix unit AND, have the distributor recurved. I told the technician, who has a well known speed shop here in the San Fernando Valley, that I wanted a lot of zip off the line but no pinging using 91 octane gas. He said he could do it. When I got the distributor back, the initial vacuum was 7 degrees, mechanical advance of 10 degrees and he advised me to set the timing at 14 - 16 degrees BTDC. I set the timing at 15 degrees giving me a total of 35 degrees of advance and took the car for a test drive. I punched it from a dead stop and I have never experienced anything quite like the acceleration the F now has. It literally jolted me back in the seat. It burned rubber and took off like a jack rabbit. I tested it on some steep hills and I could not get it to ping. The tech had told me that I would experience this kind of acceleration but what he did to the distributor would have no effect on road or higher speeds. The reason for me relating this is that perhaps those of you who are looking for higher octane gas need look no further than a good distributor technician. I am well satisfied.

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