Correct procedure for 440 timing.

My timing cover has 3 marks. 10 before, zero(actually a hole), and 10 after. My harmonic balancer has a lot of marks on it, starting at 10 after and ending at 50 before. It is a fluidampr.

With engine warm, idling, and vacuum advance unplugged. Should initial be set to 12-14 before on fluidampr aligned with the zero on the timing cover?

Then do I need to rev up to 3000rpm with vac unplugged and get as close to 35 before on the fluidampr?

When all that is done, with vacuum plugged back in, I am getting like 48 or 50 before at 3000rpm

Is this ok? It seems to run great, starts up with a little hesitation when at normal operating temp.

My engine is a fresh 440, eddy head, Mr Sixpack cam, eddy rpm intake, street demon carb, schumacher header.

I looked through the forums and google. I found a bunch if different answers.

Thanks a lot!

Sounds good enough. If by hesitation during start up, you mean the timing advance is kicking the starter back, you may have to lower your initial advance. Depends on cam, compression, starter and battery quality. A start retard might help also. BTW, did you verify TDC beforehand?

Are you sure you didn't get the before and after on the balancer backwards? Usually they will show a lot of degrees before, the after ones not so much since they don't do you much good.

Yes i believe it's kicking the starter back only when engine is warm. Starts fine when cold. Piston 1 was at TDC when 0 on balancer was aligned with 0 on timing cover. Is that what you mean by verifying tdc? Thanks!

I could have that backwards. I will check.

If the timing curve is adjustable, you might want to take 5 degrees out of your base timing. That should help startup.

What distributor are you using? If it is MP is it the one with the adjustable mechanical advance? Also you should run the RPM up higher than 3000 to make sure it's not advancing more.

If your running both centrifical(mechanical) and vacume advance then all you want to do is hold the engine at high enough rpm to total all the advance,usually 3000 rpm ,adjust any additional advance by moving the distributer.Your final total should be 33 to 37 degrees.If your dampner is degreed you can mark it at the desired total and at 3000 rpm you should align your degreed mark with 0 on the timing tab.

Back off initial timing so the engine starts when hot, no kickback. It should start with a flick of the key. Wherever that is, run it there. I'll guess the engine should idle pretty easy at 800ish rpm.

If you know where it wants total timing, subtract initial timing number from total timing number that gives you the mechanical advance you want. Adjust mechanical advance to get that number.

I wouldn't pay attention to the vacuum advance until you have the initial/mechanical/total figured out.

Verify TDC - Your Fluidampr is probably pretty accurate but if you want to find true TDC, get one of these.