allyolds68

I ended up purchasing the FAST 7501725 kit from Speedway over the winter and installed it last week. I set my initial timing at 10. I'm all in at 25 at 2200 rpms (vacuum advanced plugged) which seems very low.

The car is nearly impossible to start now. It acts like it wants to start with the slightest click of the key but if you miss it you have to crank the crap out of it to try to get it to catch and start. When it finally does start it has to burn off a ton of un-burnt fuel. Once it's started you'd never know there's a problem. It seems to run much smoother than it did with points but it doesn't seem to get on it as hard.

On an unrelated note, I've got the rev limiter set at 4500 which feels a little low but better safe than sorry.

MDchanic

It is. You need to advance your timing about 11°.

- Eric

oldcutlass

Doesn't the EFI control the timing after you set a baseline.

allyolds68

this isn't EFI. It's just an in-cap points elimination kit similar to the Pertronix

allyolds68

After installing the FAST I attempted to start it and I couldn't get it to fire at all. I threw my cheap non-advance timing light on it and found the timing was far above 10 so I retarded it to where it is now. I don't really understand how installing this would throw the whole timing window off. I would think that if I was set at 10 before and my total was around 30 at 3000, the mechanical difference was 20. Now my mechanical difference seems to be 12 (FWIW I do have an advance timing light and that's what I was screwing around with last night.)

MDchanic

The kit you installed is the same as the Crane kit, and, as you said, it should have no effect on your timing curve.

If you have a regular points distributor, your mechanical advance range should be about 25°-30°. You seem to have a range of 12°, as you said, which is typical of HEI, which I ASSumed that you had, as I had never heard of the FAST unit (which is, or used to be, called the Crane unit).

I'd double check those advance readings, whether with a dial-back timing light, or with a standard one and a timing tape (or balancer measurement and marking), and let us know.

If, for some reason (previous modification?), your points distributor has only 12° of advance, then treat it like an HEI and set your initial to somewhere around 20° BTDC.

- Eric

oldcutlass

Sorry for my confusion. If suddenly your timing curve changed and you did not mess with springs or weights, you probably have some interference. Check your installation.

allyolds68

I called FAST today and they said there was no reason the unit would cause the timing to act this way so I figured it must be something stupid. I took everything apart and verified that the balancer hadn't spun and TDC was a on the compression stroke. Then I took the FAST pickup unit off and reinstalled it. I spent a little more time making sure I had a decent gap on the pick-up unit. FAST told me it should be around .030 although on the directions it said "as close as possible". Then went through and reinstalled the rotor, cap, and all the plug wires. I set the initial timing to 8 degrees at 800 rpm's (the factory setting for a 68 455). I ran it up to all in at about 26 degrees at about 2800 RPM's.

I have no idea what's different now. I didn't find anything wrong but it runs and starts fine now. Kind of anticlimactic, but in a good way, I guess.

Thanks for everyone's help

MDchanic

I'd advance it a bit more, provided that you get no detonation, but regardless, it sounds great!

Glad you got it fixed!

- Eric

allyolds68

It went right back to starting like crap the next day. It's got a constant 12v to the negative instead of a pulse. I ran through every test FAST could think of and they basically agreed the module is bad. I sent it back to Speedway today. In the mean time the points are back in.

MDchanic

That's why I like points. Simple. Easy to diagnose. Easy to change. Not a lot of surprises.

- Eric

Lsx442

I'm wanting to convert and was looking at the FAST unit. Let us know how things work out