Total Advance Measure with old school timing light

[will e]

So I was thinking about total timing advance. One method is to purchase a timing light that allows you to dial in an offset. But I was thinking...

If you are looking for, lets say, 36 degrees of total advance why can't you put the timing light on plug wire 3 and check to see if your timing light shows 9 degrees AFTER TDC on the balancer? (351 cleveland firing order 13726548)

Each cyl reaches tdc 45 degrees apart right? So if cyl one is at 36 degrees before tdc timing when it fires then wouldn't the timing pointer be on 9 degrees after TDC when cyl 3 fires?

 

[marks73]

That is correct. Many of my friends did it that way as they thought "cheap and dirty". Gets a little tricky though on dialing it in degree by degree due to vacuum, carburator settings, ect. Depending on upgrades my thought back in the 80's when I didn't even own a timing light was, "we'll test on the street".

Of coarse, that gets you in a heap of trouble these days.