I'm doing timing on my 88 5.0. I forgot if the number 1 cyclinder gets hooked up or the coil wire. I've tried looking through my maint. book but it doesn't tell me anything. I at one time knew how it was but forgot.

 

The light goes on the #1 plug wire. I think the coil wire is a constant supply so it wouldnt work right.

 

Yeah that's what I thought. I did that yesterday after I wrote the question. My timing was set at 6. WOW. I don't know if the owner did that on purpose or what but I think that it was really hurting the motor. Now all I need to do is check the compression. Not to sure on how to do that but I'm sure that I'll figure it out. Thanks......

 

6 degrees BTDC? It would hurt performance but not the motor. Depending on your compression or boost you can go as much as 8 to 16 degrees BTDC at 800 rpm idle before you get detonation. But that's just your idle timing, as you increase rpm you can also increase the timing, which gives you more power and efficiency. An electronic ignition is required for that.

 

Boy did I notice the difference in the car. that thing just wanted to go go go. What I ment by hurting my motor was the performance not compression or anything like that. At one point in the morning the car would have a weird idle (up and down). Now I don't any more so I'm thinking that having the timing at 6 was throwing the computer off a little during warm up.
While I was checking the timing I noticed that my car was sounding different at start (before setting the timing). I looked around and noticed that the bolts for the starter were backing out and almost out on top. Got the car up on the ramps and got them tight. What would cause them to come loose?

 

Picture how it will go go go if you get computer that will set timing 50 degrees BTDC at 6000 rpm. [:'(]