Hey guys had a couple quick questions about advanceing the timing on my 351w... Ok so i recently bought thecar and i was wanting to check the timing and possibly see if i could advance it maybe 10 degree's. So i get the light on it and i cant even see the 0 degree mark till i turn the timing gun up to about 40. So i was like wtf and turned the distributer till it lined up with 0 and teh car was on the brink of cutting off. Could anybody tell me why? I mean the car runs great the way it is just wondering here. Also i was wondering on a 351w how much advance can you do if your going to be running 93 octane only. Thanks guys

 

Hey,
The reason why the car sounded like it was going to bog out and die is 'cause you prolly retarded the timing from a stock base timing of around 6-10 deg BTDC, to 0. 6-10 deg BTDC is what it will need at idle. First of all, what kind of timing gun are you using? The simplest one to use is one without any kinds of adjustment, just an inductive pick-up lead that clamps to cylinder 1 ignition wire. Try the link below for some information about ignition timing ie; base, mechanical advance and then vaccum advance.
Indy
http://www.fordmuscle.com/archives/2000/03/timing/