Timing and plug wires 1985 cutlass 307

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Whiplash

Not-quite-so-new-guy
Jul 21, 2017
5
0
1
Screw around with my plug wires and my timing. I think I have my timing right but my plugs wires wrong or both could be wrong but I have seen improvement with tweaking the timing little by little. Most of the diagrams I have seen for olds 307 say counterclockwise for timing. I rotated my distributor in a clockwise direction and it sped up my idle it only died when I went counter clockwise but all the diagram except one showed to go clockwise. Also the one that showed clockwise showed a different plugwire order so I am very confused
 

MrSony

Geezer
Nov 15, 2014
6,836
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Des Moines, Iowa
To advance the timing, you turn the distributor the OPPOSITE way the rotor rotates. Chevy turns CW, so you'd turn it CCW to advance and CW to retard. With your Olds, it turns CCW, so it'd be CW to advance and CCW to retard. Olds has the standard V8 firing order, 1 8 4 3 6 5 7 2, and odd cylinders on the driver bank, even on the passenger.
 

MrSony

Geezer
Nov 15, 2014
6,836
6,749
113
Des Moines, Iowa
And get yourself a good dialback timing light, or at least the dinky 50 dollar one to see your base timing. Or, just time it for the most manifold vacuum.
 
Oct 14, 2008
8,827
7,783
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Melville,Saskatchewan
On the stock distributor, the computer advance must be disabled. I believe you ground the adl connector, pin A to B. To advance it, turn it clockwise.
 

somaphox

Apprentice
Jan 16, 2015
67
13
8
in lieu of a dial backtiming light clean your balancer well then make a makeshift timing tape.have it start at the zero mark on the timing pointer and run the tape clockwise down the balancer.now make white out marks at say the 30,36 and 50 degrees going clockwise so when you read with a normal light,the corresponding timing will now be at the zero mark when you go to look and you can still set normal timing by reading the timing tab in the normal fashion.this mainly helps when looking at total timing or vac advance if your engine had it,being a ccc system though yours is obviously advance via the computer but you could still use this method to see just how much it advances the timing past what you can normally see.but yes to dial in base timing your engine had to be in diagnostic mode which is accomplished by grounding terminals a and b on the aldl connector with a paper clip or you can simply unplug the 4 wire harness,i prefer to just ground the aldl personally.
 

somaphox

Apprentice
Jan 16, 2015
67
13
8
i was making a diagram but didnt turn out right for whate ever reason.anyway from the front passenger side of the engine the cylinders are 2 4 6 and 8,front of drivers side are 1 3 5 7.the way the factory distributor was set up was the two rear posts were 1 and 8,1 being on the drivers side and 8 being on the passenger side.follow the order counterclockwise as has been said 18436572 and your set though technically the first spark plug tower can be where ever you want it to be really as long as the rotor is pointing to it on tdc of compression stroke and it follows the correct firing order
 
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