Hi guys When I rebuilt my 71 455 this summer I used a cloyes double roller chain and sprockets......the crank sprocket has 3 possible settings
1. stock
2. advance
3. retard


so I set it to stock but im wondering how much bottom end torque would I gain by setting it in the advanced keyway


the instructions state advance for bottom end torque and retard for top end........I want to get as much power out of the engine as possible!!




ive been thinking about changing it to the advanced position but would hate to remove all the parts to do this and not see a change.


any info or input on this???

 

Mark would be a much better person to comment. I'm sure he has forgotten more about cam timing than most of us will ever know.

Some factory timing sets have some camshaft retard built into it. Some people suggest degreeing the cam in 2 degrees advanced from whatever the suggested setting is, the idea is that when the timing chain stretches during break-in the cam is where it needs to be.

I would suggest degreeing the cam in straight up. It would seem to me that if there was a good reason to advance or retard the cam it would be ground into the profile to begin with. Maybe on a dyno or dragstrip the change in cam timing might show up. However I'm guessing it would be more of a fine tuning improvement.

 

Thank you.

However the term "straight up" actually means that if it was ground on a 110 lobe sep then you should install it on a 110ICL. Typically most cam companies grind a few degrees of advance into their cams. In a perfect world that would put that in at about a 106ICL.

You probably won't see much of a difference unless the cam you have in there is too big for the application or is grossly out of time in the first place. Conversly if it was too small and you retarded it then you would see a difference.

Hope this helps.

 

How does one go about contacting cutlassefi? I am considering an engine build.

 

you click on his name and send him a private message or an Email

Gene