Don't forget when you start talking about how great timing control would be you are limited by the mechanical nature of the dist. Too much advance in relation to the rotor and you send the spark to the wrong cylinder. Also, is there a wide blade rotor available and or a wide cap? You can go farther with electronic controls with these items. They allow you to do more electronically. That buck you feel is the spark going the wrong way. 4.0L's have tat problem with aftermarket timing sets and cams from time to time. You getthe buck on a long grade at tip in of the throttle. There is an indexing procedure you have to use to make sure your dist is set properly. No dist and elctronic controls shine here as you can fire the plug whenever you choose. -- Mark Price Morgantown, WV 1969 AMC Rambler, 4.0L, EFI, T-5 2004 Grand Cherokee Laredo, 4.7L, Quadratrac II " I realize that death is inevitable. I just don't want to be around when it happens! " -------------- Original message ---------------------- From: Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx> > Sandwich Maker wrote: > > > idle thought: how hard would it be to add timing curves for an ecm > > controlled hei dist? not for the 196 of course; 199/232/258 only. > > EASY. I forgot, when Mark talked about the is-it-all-worth it, to > mention this. Yeah, THAT would be a huge payback and I plan on doing > exactly that. I've had a bear of a time fighting ping and aggressive > spark advance needed for power and efficiency. > > > But not for the 232 only! I forgot to say, I really want to control > spark for the 195.6. It's a huge untapped area of free power (OK by huge > I mean tiny... :-) Seriously, the motor is way under-timed. > > My current scheme is lousy, though better than stock. I've upped > mechanical and vaccum advance a lot, all tuned for highway light cruise, > and it's fine there. But it bucks from too much advance and very light > throttle low speed. > > BTW, this motor WILL NOT ping. It detonates, for sure, but it does not > make that pinging noise. I heard that only once in the year (is it two?) > I've driven it, and I'm really pushing spark. Compression is 7.8:1. With > too much advance it bucks, clearly between there and "correct" is some > detonation, but how to detect it!? > _______________________________________________ > Amc-list mailing list > Amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx > http://splatter.wps.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/amc-list _______________________________________________ Amc-list mailing list Amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx http://splatter.wps.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/amc-list