Thanks Tony, for your several messages of Calif. wisdom. I have now set mine
at -5 and may move it back to -6.  Unfortunately I'm waiting for a Master
clutch cylinder before road testing.  The motor sure sound better with
timing advanced.

BTW, I find the idle rather "jerky" when idle stabilizer is unhooked, as per
timing mark gets jumpy (as seen with timing light of course).  So I just
tried to average it at -5 at idle.

Pulley position (with timing light, of course) is much more stable when
racing motor with vacuum advance.

Is this normal in your experience?

JGS

----- Original Message -----
From: Smola, Tony <TSmola@tribune.com>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2001 7:19 PM
Subject: setting yout timing

> If you have a 1.9 L motor I would suggest changing the timing to 6 degrees
> before top dead center, remember the TDC mark is the shallow groove , not
> the v notch. that is 5 degrees AFTER top dead center.
> Check the gap on the plugs, be sure to use antiseize on the threads,
> ..........
>
> Malibu Tony 85' Westy  6 degrees BTDC......42 degrees full
> advance......vacuum lines connected...