It can be both, but its set to 225 kpa

 

didn't get to look at it last night, but will for sure tonight.

There's also some thought that my valve springs might be on the light side, but I highly doubt that they're so light that they're floating at 3500 rpm and 5.5 psi. 120/350 open/closed.

 

If it's actually pulling the timing back, like what you think it is, then that would easily be enough to kill all of that power.

 

I have no shame.


With that said, I've owned a fox since 2004 and I just learned that you can pull the spout with the car running.

Here's what happened - Stabbed the distributor, turned the key, car runs.

Turn car off, Pull spout, no run. Put spout in, start car... (BIG IDEA) ... pull spout and ........ The car keeps running!

Some of you are probably shaking your heads, laughing, or yelling at the screen in anger. I honestly didn't know and I grew up around chevy guys...

Anyway, base timing is 10 degrees, here's proof:


I didnt rev it much - Im pretty sure my neighbor hates me and has the police on speed dial. Im also headed out of town for the weekend, so the end of this story is going to have to wait until Sunday.

 

ok, I'll admit it,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,what'a a spout?

 

The spout is the little gray plug that goes in the distributor wiring harness. When you pull the spout out, it locks the timing, so you can set it manually, and stops the computer from being able to control the timing. That way you can set the base timing for the engine. Once you put the spout back in, the computer will then add timing on top of the base that you have set, per the timing map that is loaded into it.

 

https://youtu.be/OM2D31opt9o

I don't know whether to laugh or cry right now.

 

https://youtu.be/uAU80U6oNFE

https://youtu.be/6W4bWeLVwWk


Nothing really exciting in these videos. Just me realizing that I am my own worst enemy and probably have no business messing with cars, haha.

Needless to say, the MSD box will be going in the trash. Oh well, lesson learned.

 

Congrats

 

Thank you! I'm an emotional mess right now haha. Ecstatic it's fixed, sad I wasted so much money chasing it and angry I didn't listen to everyone who said not to use an MSD box. Oh, relieved. Can't forget relieved.

 

So it was the MSD box or you just never pulled the spout while setting timing?

 

Yes to both. Main cause of the timing retarding was the MSD box. I had a few other issues along the way that needed to be corrected as well, but I fixed them a couple weeks ago.

 

Oh ok, I thought you had the problem before the box and added the box to try to fix it. I wish I could get rid of mine but I just added it up and it's close to $1000 to go DIS on mine. Not much car money after Christmas lol.

 

Ouch!

 

A few pages ago, I mentioned that I have no shame. I honestly didn't think so until about 10 minutes ago. My buddy that does the powder coating for me was asking if I had the MSD box hooked up right. I swore to him it was and he argued the opposite. I went as far as going out to the car, opening the glovebox, taking a picture, and saying, "No. No no. Ohhhhh sh*t."


The white wire. The really important white wire. It leads to nowhere.


I had to come in and shift the blame on myself and not on MSD in this case. It's not right to blame someone else when I in fact am my own worst enemy, yet again.


So again, I want to apologize for this whole debacle. It appears that I have yet to give attention to important details.

BUT! I'd be lying if I said I didn't learn a whole lot about how ignition systems work now.


I'm going to quit posting now, because it seems the more I dig, the worse I look. Good night!

 

LOL man we all make mistakes. Like you said now you know more than most about ignition systems. Now you don't have an excuse to not come to the track once you are back in town!

 

Lol it seems like someone may have mentioned a few weeks ago to check the ignition box. Glad you got it working though! So it was really just the wiring and not the actual box right?

 

Yeah, I forgot to hook up the white wire that goes to the computer for timing reference.

I drove it to work this morning. Fun!

https://youtu.be/Mf3UtoExFIA

https://youtu.be/Hv6cBiUk63M


Man this car is fun.

 

Sweet! I used the MSD jumper harness which I believe eases up the wiring a bit. I realized afterward that I could have saved the 20 bucks and wired it manually but the plug makes it a breeze to disconnect the box and plug the coil into factory efi harness to bypass the box, for troubleshooting purposes.

#ad

 

See, I think this is where I went wrong. The guy I bought the MSD box sent it with the "harness". I plugged everything in and went about my business. The only problem is it was the wrong harness and I had to plug in one last wire.