Pulling power question

[Cav Trooper]

I purchased a driving restoration M37 last summer and have spent a little time installing options ie; turn signals and heater. When I bought the truck, it ran fine but did not have much pulling power on the hills and I had to shift to 3rd a lot and drop to about 25 mph tops to pull the hills. I also had a huge problem with spark knock. I started digging into the ignition timing and found I couldn't get the timing retarded enough to even be close to TDC. I checked the distributor and found some adjustment but still not close enough. I finally discovered that the oil pump had been installed 1 tooth off and after I corrected that, I got close and got rid of the spark knock, but need to use a timing light and set properly. I bought an spark plug adapter and I'm ready to tear into it again as soon and the weather warms a little. This is still a 24v system and I use a 12v battery charger for timing light power. I have read that the timing is around 4 deg. ADC, if I use this or TDC am I going to see a difference in hill pulling power? I know these are not power house engines but I was hoping to not have to downshift often and to slow up any traffic behind me more than necessary. Any ideas without starting an opinion war??

 

[Westech]

4* ATDC? I think you mean BTDC and you might want to push that a little more to around 6-8 depending on how she acts. If the timing is off a engine will loose a lot of power.. if it was off like you say could be around 50%. Reset your oil pump and distributor, set your timing to 4* BTDC and go from there... You can really do it by ear and every engine will be a little different. you will have to fine tune it. as for the timing light just hook it to the first battery (12V) I would NOT use a battery charger you want a constant power supply (some of the new chargers wont see a draw on a timing light and wont power up) .

 

[Oldfart]

4* ATDC? I think you mean BTDC and you might want to push that a little more to around 6-8 depending on how she acts. If the timing is off a engine will loose a lot of power.. if it was off like you say could be around 50%. Reset your oil pump and distributor, set your timing to 4* BTDC and go from there... You can really do it by ear and every engine will be a little different. you will have to fine tune it. as for the timing light just hook it to the first battery (12V) I would NOT use a battery charger you want a constant power supply (some of the new chargers wont see a draw on a timing light and wont power up) .

No, The specs call for ATD center. It does make a difference in pulling power. Top RPM suffers, but off road hill climbing is much better (at least at 9,000 to 11,000 feet in elevation.) My Brother-in-laws M37 resides at 8,300 feet and goes up from there. His truck is stock at 4 degrees ATDC. I live at 6,100 feet 100 miles away from him and I have my engine set at 6 degrees BTDC. Here on the front range flats, my top speed is faster than his, but off road in his world, he kicks my behind. On highway in our mountains, he pulls hills a little better than I do, but understand, we are both the slowest things on the highway.