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Good morning all, I have a 53 Patrician with a 327 Straight 8. I'm looking for some ignition timing help. I used my timing light to discover that I am about 20 degrees (retarded) at idle. The spec for the vehicle is 6 degrees BTDC with 13 degrees max on the vacuum advance. I tried to adjust the distributor by loosening the 2 bolts at the base of the distributor where it enters the block. With theese bolts loosened the distributor would only move the distance of the vacuum advance and spring back to the previous position. Is there another bolt or hold down that I'm missing? I'm doing all of this to try to figure out why I'm having hard starts when the engine is up to operating temp. When I say "hard" starts, I mean very slow cranking as if it had "high" compression resistance. When the engine is cold it turns over easily and starts quickly. Sorry for the long description but I'm at my wits end. ANY help or advice is greatly appreciated. Happy Packarding! Ramon

It sounds like two separate issues to me. Yes timing can affect starting, but it should crank the same regardless.

Slow cranking after getting hot can sometimes be caused by the starter having built up resistance due to the heat. Do you have a way to check for current draw cold, then hot?

Also...if the starter is fine, then the battery may be losing it's charge while running (not necessarily heat related) If this is the case, then your battery will eventually go bad from the deep cycling. Check battery voltage battery before you start, while starting, and when running right after first start, then check again after it's warmed up. Finally, check the battery voltage about 5 minutes after you shut down.

That's where I would start....both tests only take a minute or two and can tell you a whole lot of information.

Slow cranking after getting hot can sometimes be caused by the starter having built up resistance due to the heat. Do you have a way to check for current draw cold, then hot?

Also just a classic symptom of the timing being advanced too far, a kind of stutter-cranking when hot, OK when cold.

I'm not familiar with your exact distributor mounting plate configuration, or even fully understand your problem, but if the movement of the distributor clamp device doesn't allow you to rotate the distributor far enough, you can just loosen the ring clamp that hold the distributor to the base clamp, rotate to your hearts delight, and retighten in a new position. Just remember, you're also rotating the cap and wire positions but not the rotor, so don't get too far away from home plate.

I agree with you about the too much advance stutter-cranking, but it sounded like he was way retarded.

Just now re-read the post....I saw retarded but he also said 20 BTDC which is Way Advanced. Did I not have enough coffee this morning?

Couldn't he remove the coil wire to determine whether it's an advance related cranking issue when hot?

Couldn't he remove the coil wire to determine whether it's an advance related cranking issue when hot?

And I think I had too much coffee this morning. Yes, I guess he could do that but if it was me, I'd just static time it to get it in the ballpark first. 20 deg. BTDC? That's way out of my range of experience.

Thanks for the fast replies, sorry about the "BTDC" that I put after the 20 degrees on my original post. My timing mark on my crank pulley is 20 degrees before the pointer at operating temperature at idle. Thanks again for any advice. Ramon

I believe the 327 has a screw under the vacuum advance plate. That screw will allow the distributor to turn.

I made a simple change to the distributors on my 37 Six and 47 Clipper to make changing the ignition timing easier. I got a long (1 1/2" or 2") 1/4" hex head bolt, and made a long sleeve (shorter than the bolts) and substituted these for the regualr screw. This arrangement moves the bolt head out beyond the back of the distributor which makes it easy to see and get to with a wrench to loosen and tighten. Sorry, no photos.

(o[]o)