Thread: Timing by ear?

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Originally Posted by C9x

If you don't have a timing light or vacuum gauge, nor the well-tuned ear, why not time the engine statically?

Commonly done on fresh engines.

You won't be able to get an exact read on the vacuum advance end of things, but you can tell if the vacuum advance is working.

My find on initial statically tuned engines is that my timing is generally way advanced as they all seem to idle very nicely 'way up'. I then need my light and gauge to put it into specs.

As far as checking vacuum advance operation - you are correct on GM engines that use full intake vacuum. Ford uses ported(timed) vacuum from above the throttle plates which has no bearing on idle advance.