The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

The book says 10 degrees BTDC at idle....we all know that, right?
The car is fitted with a Pertronix electronic ignition set up.
I used a timing light while the engine was hot and idling at around 750-800 RPM. But every time I set it at 10 BTDC, then tightened up the distributor nut and rechecked it, it was at 11 degrees. It and I, did this around 5 times.
Feeling that near enough is good enough, I've decided to leave it set at 11 BTDC, BUT, I'm taking Daisy on a 1650kms trip at Easter where there will be prolonged periods when she will be cruising at 100-110 kph or thereabouts.
Considering that she'll be running on 98 RON Premium unleaded, can anyone see a problem with this?
Cheers,
Rob

If it doesnt pink under load say from 1000 rpm in top gear you will be fine.

Best to run it slightly on the rich side...

Jonners

Jon,
Thanks.
Those were my thoughts exactly. But being a new chum when it comes to SPRINTS I figured I better ask.
Cheers,
Rob

Is there any play in the dizzy shaft? If you're running on points you will get timing scatter and the points gap will be all over the place. Even with electronic ignition you might still have a problem if the play in the dizzy shaft is really bad. You might also have a faulty vacuum advance. You've done the right thing setting it to the book figure with 98 RON fuel. Its the closest you can get to 4 star these days and you don't have to worry about valve seat recession on the Sprint because they had hardened exhaust valve seats from day one because of the aluminium alloy head.

My apologies for bring this up again, but....
I just removed the small floating stud and locking nut from the distributor mounting and replaced it with a 7/16 bolt and lock washer. Then I re-timed it, found 10 degrees and easily locked it there.
I find it unusual that the distributor mounting would have a floating stud and locking nut rather than a bolt and lock washer. Is this the norm for these slant 4 engines? or is this a previous owners mod?
Cheers,
Rob

It should have the 7/16" bolt and spring washer. It was probably lost and replaced with whatever was to hand.

Toledo Man wrote:It should have the 7/16" bolt and spring washer. It was probably lost and replaced with whatever was to hand.

That's pretty much what I thought, but being relatively new to Sprints, I didn't know. Now I do.
Thanks,
Rob