3690432 dist advance?

Posted By: B5 Bee

3690432 dist advance? - 08/01/09 09:43 PM

I bought a boat with a 440 in it, put it in the water and it felt sluggish. I can't find my dial back light so I checked it with a std light and it had 5* after. I gave it 17* more to 12* before, runs much better but it feels like it could use a bit more. I'd like to run 35*-38* total and need to know how much mech adv is built into 3690432. This is the dist that comes in the MP conversion kits.

Posted By: hooziewhatsit

Re: 3690432 dist advance? - 08/02/09 04:34 AM

I have no idea what dist that is

What I would do, is put a timing tape on the balancer (or figure out how many inches is 34-36*), run the rpms up to where ever it stops advancing, then turn the dist to set 35* there. Let it go back to idle and see what the timing is at. The difference is the total timing in the dist.

Let us know where it ends up at idle and we can go from there.

Posted By: torkrules

Re: 3690432 dist advance? - 08/02/09 12:41 PM

Quote:

I bought a boat with a 440 in it, put it in the water and it felt sluggish. I can't find my dial back light so I checked it with a std light and it had 5* after. I gave it 17* more to 12* before, runs much better but it feels like it could use a bit more. I'd like to run 35*-38* total and need to know how much mech adv is built into 3690432. This is the dist that comes in the MP conversion kits.

Is this the older style distributor with the large weights or the new style with the Mallory small weights. The newer style have adjustable total weight stops. Mallory has a kit with springs and keys for adjustment.

If its the older style, you can do two things. If you take the advance cam off (the part where the rotor/reluctor sits on and had the slots that fit into the pins on the weights), the total distributor advance is usually stamped on the bottom. For example, if it has a 9 stamped on the bottom, it would have 18 degrees crank advance. The other way is to measure the length of the slot. Here is a handy chart that someone posted a while ago that list the slot length VS distributor degrees (don't forget to multiply by 2 for the crank degrees)

6 degrees .340
7 degrees .355
8 degrees .375
9 degrees .390
10 degrees .405
11.5 degrees .420

If the 440 has stock iron heads, I would shoot for around 12-14 degrees advanced with a total timing of around 38.

The curve is important too. It should start to advance a little past idle and be all in by 3000 rpm. Any faster than this and you may have pinging especially with loads encountered with boats.

Posted By: RapidRobert

Re: 3690432 dist advance? - 08/02/09 12:41 PM

2&1/4"(2.233") is 35.5 degrees

Posted By: B5 Bee

Re: 3690432 dist advance? - 08/02/09 04:27 PM

I haven't poped the cap off to see if it's the old or new dist.
I have welded up the slots on dists before when I couldn't find an advance plates around 9R (I like to run a lot of intial).
If I can't find my dial back light, I'll mark the damper. I'll have to double check the damper diameter to see if it's the same as automotive, if so, I'll use the number Robert posted. If not, I'll multiple the diameter by 3.1412, then divide by 360, multiply that number by 35. I want to start at 35* and see if 38* will work on 87 octane. Boats have more load on them while cruising than autos and I don't want to get into detonation, nor do I want to pony up the $ for 92 octane.
Thanks for all the replies!