Decided to take a break from the safety certificate trivia and see if I could get the engine starting better. This is a bone stock 1.7 D-jet. Brand new to me - don't know the history at all. New plugs, new rotor, good cap.

Before I started I did a quick check of the timing. The whole curve was retarded just a bit - 3 or 4 degrees at the high end. Static seemed to be about 8 degrees. I parked the engine with rotor pointing at the #1 TDC(ish) scribe mark on the body of the distributor. That way when I returned it I could at least set it to where the points where. I had the distributor from my other car that I had cleaned up an lubricated so I installed the pertronix in that one. Beast of a job with the wires and grommets. Any how, I returned the fresh distributor with the pertronix to the engine and aligned it to the scribe mark. Didn't start, of course. I haven't done a lot of cranking yet because it felt like it may be way advanced. Wanted to check with you guys before going any further. The cranking was significantly different than before. Before it was crank crank crank, cough, crank crank crank cough cough, crank crank crank 1 cylinder firing, few seconds, another, another and the fourth.

Now it felt like the cough was trying but it almost stopped the engine. That is what has got me thinking way too advanced.

Finally down to the question. Is there a way of doing a static timing with the pertronics? Failing that should I just retard it a bit and see what happens? Distributor counter clockwise to retard?

Probably unreleated but I also checked compression. #2 is significantly below the other 3. My compression guage is a little fubar so don't believe these numbers - just the relative numbers. #2 was at about 85 - rest at 125.

My goal is to get the engine from the old rustbucket restored and use it in the new car. Because of that I'm not doing a lot of serious work on this engine. Just want to make it drivable until the restoration is done.

Thanks

I think I have the rotation thing backwards - clockwise to retard. If you go counter clockwise the cylinder has already fired - ie even more advanced.

Yeah, you are correct- clockwise will retard. That one cylinder at 85 is unfortunate, but won't keep it from starting.
I believe I would retard it a bit and try again. Even, if youve advanced too far, it doesn't mesh valves and pistons unless you have had some major hot-rod work done- although it might could damage the FI system. IDK, because I have carbs.
Can you put points in the first dizzy and try it? Maybe the difference is between the two diz units.

Maybe I'm going too analytical. I was thinking if it was advanced too far the flame front would hit the piston before TDC and that would cause it the piston to be decelerated rather than accellerated.

Yes I can do a mix and match. But I think I'll try retarding it first.

yup - retarded it a bunch and away she went.

Now with a decent spark she is overreving like crazy at idle so that's next on the agenda. Going to investigate the decel and mps while she is cooling down. Then I guess I'm going to have to adjust the valves on #2. Brad Anders site suggests that over tightened valves can cause rich running so maybe I get lucky and that is the source of the poor compression.

I'm thinking that the 'quick and dirty get her running' approach is not going to work well. I'm going to have to take the time and work through the entire D-Jet check list.