Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

It's pretty much impossible to find TDC within 10 or ever more degrees by using the finger over the spark plug hole; one accurate way is to remove the head and use a dial indictor over the head of the piston to find TDC. But really, you can do just as accurate and perhaps even better timing job "by ear" and this will also compensate for changes in fuel, changes in CR is the head has been swapped or milled, etc. Simply time it for a hint of spark ping with the fully warmed engine on a hard pull uphill or accelerating with heavy throttle in high gear. It's even easier if you can find a location with a wall or hill on the right side of the road as it makes it much easier to heard the ping.

True....timing by ear works for me. Using a timing light assumes that all components are at factory spec...no worn timing chain, slipped balancer, low octane fuel etc.. Using a vacuum gauge works well too, as it sets max vacuum for that particular engine at that point in time.

Hope you didn't polish it too much looking. I had a difficult time finding markings, they're not very deep, like I was used to, and the numbers were poorly punched but there were degree lines. If I recall, from 0 to 10. The 0,5,10 lines were a bit heavier and maybe what you see. I fine wire brushed the grooves and wiped with white paint to make them prominent.
It timed right up with the inductive light, I just ran light off a 12v source.