Can someone break down timing an engine (specifically a 5.9 Magnum) to something I can understand? I'm kind of stupid about this stuff.

I thought I understood timing, but I realized that much of my engine's issues could stem from bad timing and advance, so I would like to retime it correctly.

Assume I'm starting from scratch here. Assume my cam is degreed, but assume my balancer has no timing tape on it. I have timing tape to put on it, so if you could tell me how to correctly install it as well, that would be awesome.

I should have the tools:

Timing light
Vacuum gauge
Dwell tach
In-car tach
various hand tools to change distributor position and vacuum advance position

I just really don't know whether what I did prior was correct. Thanks in advance. Sometimes it seems I just need a simple explanation and I understand the subject a whole bunch more.

For best power you want as much timing advance as you can get as soon as possible without pinging knocking or bad manners.

are you running points? Thats the only time you need to set the dwell. Electronic Ignition dwell is not adjustable.

1 Find top dead center cylinder #1

Turn over the motor by hand and find the absolute top of the stroke. You can put in a stop (screws in spark plug hole) and then turn clockwise, mark when it stops, turn counter clockwise mark damper where it stops, tdc is inbetween these two stops. I have gotten away with watching the piston through the plug hole with a light. Very unscientific. In any case, mark the damper at TDC and have a pointer or something coming off the block. Mark it with silver or white or something that will pick up a strobe light well.

Turn the motor over (clockwise) until the intake rocker on #1 closes the valve. It is now in a good spot to stab in the distributor. Take note of where on the cap the #1 plug wire is and aim the rotor at that spot or just before there on the distributor body. You should be able to start it up and if the hold down is snug but not tight you can rotate the distributor.

Remove and plug the vacuum advance hose from the distributor. Set up a timing light on the #1 plug wire. Start the motor.

3 timing #s- initial (idle), Mechanical (idle+ advance added in by centrifugal weights controlled by 2 little springs in the dist) and Total (add in vac. advance)

For the average car you want to set up the total mechanical timing because you're not going to tune the distributor. Just rev it up to 3k or so and set a dial back light to get your timing mark to read at 0* at full advance. Or just use a regular light and read the # on the tape. Like a smallblock might be happy around 36 for starters.
Get it where you want it and trust that everything else is ok.

In some cases you will find that is either not enough tuning to make it run ok, or you might just want more out of it.

You can turn up the initial to get a better idle but then you can run into problems starting the car. Also you still need the same total to not ping or knock under load so you now need to fill the slots in the governor (thing that lets the weights inside sling out to make mechanical advance) with weld or epoxy to limit the mechanical advance.

You can buy lighter springs to dump more timing in sooner. Some guys 'cheat' by putting in just one light spring so that it only sees initial timing before it is started, then acts like its locked out at full initial + mechanical once you start up.

Some vac. modules you can stick a little allen inside the hose nipple and twist to delay the starting of vac. advance. The vac. is more for milage and efficiency anyway- when you need power the vac. will be low and the extra timing will come back out.

Blah blah blah are you bored yet? any questions?

good luck

Kevin