Timing with Electronic Ignition, How many degrees before TDC? Options

[Ken6432]

I have a '74 914 with dual Weber 44s and a Pertronix Ignitor distributor, with no vacuum advance on it (or mechanical as far as I can tell). Pertronix says that there is no dwell setting for their distributors. They said I would be fine using a static timing technique, but I would be more comfortable using a timing light.

My question is, how many degrees before TDC to I set the timing? Or, am I missing something? It seems I need to know this in order to set the timing correctly.

Thanks for the help.

Ken

[Dave_Darling]

There pretty much has to be some sort of mechanical advance. If not, the car would be very sluggish at higher revs.

There has to be some point when the advance is "all in". Find that point. Hook up your timing light, and look at the fan. Rev the motor and watch the fan under the timing light, when it stops moving with higher revs the centrifugal advance is all in.

Set that to be "about" 30 degrees BTDC. The stock D-jet (1.7, 2.0) setting was 27 deg BTDC, while I think the L-jet 1.8 was more like 30+ at high revs. You will probably have to experiment to find the best setting for your particular setup.

--DD