Timing problems

[Trevork34]

So I decided to check the timing on my 88 today and ran into some problems. To start, I capped off the vacuum advance and timed it to 24 degrees (like the veci says). When I hooked the vacuum back up it advanced it about 10 degrees. I ended up just setting it to 24 with the advance hooked up and it seems fine? Is that normal? Now my second problem is a little worse, while adjusting the timing I noticed that the bottom bolt was stripped, when I pulled the bolt out it pulled the threads. Should I helicoil it, try to tapp it or just not go through the pain of doing either and call one bolt good enough? Thanks in advance

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[Dr_Snooz]

There are two parts to the timing inspection. First you check the base timing. With the vac lines disconnected, that timing should be 4 deg. BTDC. With the vac lines reconnected, it should be the 24 deg. indicated on the hood tag. A big difference between the two would indicate problems in the distributor. Which will require repair or replacement. Mostly, I just check the regular timing and ignore the base timing. There isn't much I can do except replace a faulty distributor and as long as it runs fine, who cares?

[Trevork34]

Thank you. What would you do about the stripped bolt though


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[Dr_Snooz]

Oh yeah. I forgot about that. It all depends on what you intend for the car. If you're just trying to squeeze a few more years out of it before it goes to the crusher, or if you're broke, then you can try cleaning up the existing threads. You might also try tapping it a size larger and putting in a bigger bolt. I have FI, so I'm not sure if that's realistic or not. If you have the money, then Heli-Coiling would be the right way to fix it. I wouldn't be comfortable with only 1 bolt myself.