MTFCA Forum

The engine seems a little rough. This is what I've done so far: new head gasket all coils rebuilt and calibrated by Erik Larson, rebuilt coil box, new X plugs, and new New day timer, flushed fuel tank, line and carb. After all this, it still has a "pop" to it when it idles. I drove around one block, it hesitates but ran when i got back to driveway it was over heating. The car has a new style water pump, system has antifreeze. Never overheated prior to this point.
My question, if I have the timing flapper/roller 180 the wrong way will it still start and run? If this is true will it cause it to heat up faster to point of over heating in such a short time?
The engine starts right up as it sits now.
Confused!!

Simple answer, No. It will not start or run 180 out.

You have to check the timing when you put on a different timer or flapper/roller.

One of the problems you can encounter when switching from an old-style roller timer to a new-style flapper type, is the timing can be quite different.

Not only that, but a roller works just as well in either direction - which means that if the engine kicks back, no harm no foul. But a flapper-type, if turned backwards by a kick-back, can be damaged or destroyed. And, thrown even further out of time.

Checking for proper timing is easy. When the pin through the crankshaft, that the hand crank engages, is exactly horizontal, the piston is at top dead center. Your coil should not buzz until you pull it a couple of degrees past that point.

All this assumes the ignition is on, in BATT, and the spark lever is all the way up.

P. S. while making these tests, don't let a coil buzz for very long. It can heat up and destroy itself.

Thanks Peter I will check that position. When i changed the old to new I did reset timing and i did read somewhere on the forum about the pin postion. I'll give another look!
Thanks

I installed a flapper style timer recently What ive noticed with a little test, is that the timing is occurring at different degrees from cylinder to cylinder
For example I started with the first cylinder, the starting handle pin was a little past horizontal and I made a mark when the coil started buzzing The following cylinders did not buzz at the same timing mark. would that not make the engine run less than optimally? I hope this makes sense

My bad, the new timer is an Anderson.

Daniel, that makes sense to me! I'm going to put old timer back on and see if the skip is still there. The only reason I changed the timer, is because the little spring had fallen off last year causing the skipping. So ehen it happened again first thing I checked was the roller spring but it was in place. However not to worry about it again I changed timer style. Im also going to run jumper wires to bypass harness to see if its a wire issue.