Adjusting the timing

Yesterday me and my good friend Ulf was out at the garage trying to adjust the timing as the car didn't run properly.

Following this excellent thread on the V8Buick forum we set out to do good. Only to find out that nothing we did seemed to correspond with the information in the thread.

The idle timing seemed way off and the 30 degree mark climbed way past the timing tab as soon as I touched the throttle. Still the car ran decent so we adjusted it as good as we could and took it for a short test spin.

Sure enough, lot's of tire smoke and "oomph" as well as big grins on our faces. Seeing as the weather was great we decided to take the car for a longer drive and during this we felt that there was something lacking still.

We started adjusting the distributor cap in small increments and finally dialed in what seems to be the perfect setting. The car really flies and has a lot of torque. The only problem is that the timing still seems to be off.

I'll try and double check this later today but I need to wait for a buddy or brother to assist me.

Update: The timing was only off by 2-3 degrees when we checked so when I get the time I will adjust it to the proper setting.

Kind of back in the swing

I was up at the garage earlier today, trying to do as much as I could with my car seeing that it's crammed into a corner of the garage (we're talking about how to solve this issue but still haven't found a solution).

Before I parked the car last autumn I tried a rather crude method to adjust my valve lifters (as I thought they made the noise I've been hearing from the engine) but it turned out less than stellar; the engine lacked power and "oomph" after the adjustment.

After some searching I decided to try out a method described over at Crane Cams (scroll down to the "Adjusting Hydraulic Lifters for Proper Preload" section) which basically involves adjusting the intake and exhaust valve for one cylinder at a time.

As a relative beginner at engine tuning I decided to use this method as it's quite foolproof, easy to perform and you can stop at pretty much any time in the process and still get back to where you left off.

I got the drivers side done before I had to head back home (some of my garage mates talk for hours) and I plan to do the other side tomorrow. It's a bit of a workout cranking the engine around by hand but the method gives me complete control, which I like.