Today I could test a bit more on the Longchamp. I decided to ignore all the good advice and manufacturer’s recommendation and follow the process in my book. I set the initial timing by the vacuum gauge, ended up with 8 degrees earlier timing as the best steady high vacuum. I listened for detonation, couldn’t hear any, and tested if it could start with that early timing, it could. My timing gun showed 24 degrees at idle with vacuum disconnected and plugged. That’s a lot, right? Well maybe my balancer doesn’t show TDC correctly or my timing gun is faulty. Who knows? All I know is that my engine liked 24 degrees better than 16 degrees as read on the balancer. So who cares about the numbers? I don’t. And that just goes to prove the main point in my book, you can NOT set your timing based on your Haynes manual or the manufacturer’s recommendation or your best friend’s recommendation or the fastest guy in town’s recommendation. Only the vacuum gauge and the trial and error method I describe in my book will optimize your engine! Now, you can consider this posting a blatant attempt to sell books, or you can go for those free +25-50HP a perfectly tuned engine will give you. Up to you...
The test drive felt like another car. It now easily spins its wheel, in fact on the semi damp roads this morning it was impossible to measure a 0-60, it just spun its wheels all the time. Those that have read my book knows that you can’t tune any further unless you have consistent dry roads to do it on, so fine tuning and playing with the 16 curves in the ICE box will have to wait a few weeks. I don’t expect to find a lot of extra power still, but you never know.
If you copy my way of tuning, remember to always err on the side of caution, meaning start with too late timing and go earlier and earlier until you get best performance and no detonation.
