Gee, Simon, I wish I was psychic so I could tell the year of your car!
Still, it's a GT so that narrows the options.....let's assume it's a
pre-18V engine.....there's a good chance the rubber ring in your harmonic
balancer is deteriorating, allowing the outer ring to rotate slowly away
from its original position on the inner ring. This will, of course, move
the timing mark away from its proper position, leading to strange readings.
You can check by bringing No. 1 piston to TDC (take out the spark plug and
feel the top of the piston through the hole with a thin screwdriver -
carefully). If the timing mark on the pulley is still in the right place
relative to the pointer, then this whole message was a waste of
time........
Lawrie
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> From: Simon Bosworth <simon@hpi50.dsddhc.com>
> To: MG List <mgs@autox.team.net>
> Subject: Conundrum(LBC related this time)
> Date: Tuesday, February 17, 1998 6:39 AM
>
> G'day all,
> I fitted a Crane ignition unit to my GT a couple of weeks ago. It works
> just fine now, but I'm not quite sure why. I set the timing as per the
> instructions, with the static timing about 11 deg. BTDC as per the MG
> manual. However at that setting the engine would hardly run at all. I
> found I had to advance it significantly to get it to run smoothly. Now
> it runs just fine, nice idle, fuel consumption is back up to SUV levels,
> (used to be motor home). The problem I had with backfiring on gear
> changes when the engine was cold has gone away. The only thing is that
> timing, (as indicated by the mark on the crank pulley and a digital
> timing light), is at a really weird value, (about 69 deg.). This leads
> me to conclude that either my engine likes LOTS of advance or the mark
> on the pulley is way off. Any ideas anyone?
>
> Cheers,
> Simon
>
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