Quote Originally Posted by pat mccarthy View Post
this was over 20 years ago when i work at one of the largest fresh water marinas around Brennan.s over a mile of yard with docks . it was not hard to work on five boats a day for just tune ups. this is what i was told ... but why ? ask mecruiser they told use NOT to use them. that was back 20years ago and merc was sick of buying back engines with holes in the pistons ..THEY TOLD US NO MORE PERIOD .they said the dealer would cover it . they wanted fuel checked for Octane and timing set were they wanted it . very well could of been them not wanting some super turner with a wiz bang new at that time. timing lite screwing around ?? they said not to use it on the thunder bolt box and thats was a good enough for me..seen some smart a$$ use a snap on one.i told him not to use it on the engine . boat came back in a week with holes in the pistons ?? was it the light ? .the thunder bolt . had a built in curve . the light would change the curve by the way the timing lite work ? i just know what they told us
Sounds to me like the factory had an aggressive timing curve in the box, and if someone "reset" the base timing it threw in too much advance and things went south. There's simply no way that an inductive lead could "change" anything electronic. Had to be the guy "checking" making changes he did not understand in the earlier days of electronics, and burning up engines. That's how it sounds to me, anyway, but I'm not in any way a boat guy.