well, all this talk about setting the timing on your car has
given me the urge to 'fiddle' with me car some. last night when
i got home from work, i went to my spit and noticed that the
carb was running a little rich so i adjusted it down a bit.
then i checked the plug gaps and made sure they were ok. aprt
from the fuel running a bit rich and having black coated plugs,
the gaps were fine. now is where i get into what i wanted to
do. i check the initial 'static' timing (without the enigine
running) and it was at about 8°BTDC. so i then turned it to
10°BTDC and took the car out. and i think the i live in a great
spot for this part, if i make a left out of my drivway, i am
immeadiatly going up a 1/4 mile hill. and i noticed a very loud
and distinct 'pinking.' not good. so i went back home and
retarded the timing a couple degrees and went back out. same
thing. i did this a couple times untill i was disappointed that
i now had my static timing set at 2°BTDC. it was then that i
realized when i readjusted the carb, it made my fuel mixture too
lean for the timing that i wanted to run with. so, i again
readjusted my carb, and now it runs very happy at about 10°BTDC
with no signs of 'pinking' and no more black smoke pouring from
the tail pipe and a good amout of power behind my right foot.
the moral of the story: if you are going to fiddle with the
timing, you also have to fiddle with the fuel mixture to make
sure you have the right amount of fuel to burn.
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nikolai jaremka
72 spitfire mkIV
east aurora, new york
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