Hell-o all of my Italian Olives out there, it's time to talk timing. A vacum gauge has a great deal of benifits to owning one, and one of the areas is in ignition timing.  I use a vac guage to see just how much a cars timing is out, as well as other areas of concern in reguards to the engine of my ponys.

Alrighty, here we go.  If you note the green bar on the vac gauge pictured above, you'll see it says "normal motor."  That's where you want to be.  To get there, start your car and let your engine get up to temp.  That means when your thermo switch turns your fan on.  Now your car is at normal running temperature.  Loosen the nut on your distributor 17mm wrench, take the vac hose off of your vac advance unit, and plug the vac gauge into that hose, you vac gauge should come with a brass step down cone, which will give you the fit you need to be tight.  Okay now, start up your engine and notice where the needle is pointing on the vacuum gauge.  Your objective is to get the needle as deep into the green as you can by turning your distributor, you will go as far as see the needle either raise or lower.  Once you get it to the point where it is at its greatest degree, that is it.  Lock down your distributor locking nut, reconnect your vacuum line to your vac advance and you've got one very good running engine.  Now, you might have to adjust your idle screw on your injection system to bring your idle down to meet your 900-1000 rpm status.  Try it, you'll like it!

Okay, for you carbed cars out there, if you listen to what I'm saying, you should take all the carbs that Fiat ran on these cars and throw them away and run only a DGV/DGAV Weber or if you want to go with the DFV/DFAV carb, okay.  They have only one vac port on them and that goes directly to the vac advance on your distributor.  That's great, the only way it should be.  You people who are still running the other Webers that are used with all the vac ports on them, in order to use a vac gauge on these carbs, you've got to close or make sure all your vac ports are working properly.  The one you want to use on the vac gauge is primarily the one that is closest to the mixture screw or the one right at the base plate closest to your intake manifold.  You'll notice it when you hook your gauge up to it, the needle will start to read on the meter.  Do the same thing as I explained above for those who are running injected systems.  Your engine wants to run between a low of 18 to a high of 22lbs of vacuum.  Now understand, if you see that you can't get your engine to run in the green and it is running in the red, which indicates late ignition timing, it is due to the fact that your timing cam gears as well as and/or your crank pulley is not correct.  You're going to have to completely setup your timing to the marks it should be set to.  Understand, when you put a belt on you have a certain amount of play and when you're ready to taunt it, you'll find that you might have movement in either cam gears or crank pulley.  You've got to do this in a way that you don't move those marks.  This way you're home free.  That's for all you guys who are running in the red, not in the green.  Look for the guide I have written to be published soon with pictures of the correct settings so that you don't have a problem with getting to the green when you use a vac gauge.  For those of you out there who don't have a timing light, this is the best way to go.  And for those who do have a timing light, this is still the best way to go.  Your vacuum tells the story of your engine.  Remember, vacuum is what sucks the gases into your cylinders and makes the engine run the way it should.  There are many benefits as I said before to having a vac gauge.  Get one.  Buy it wherever you like but make sure it is both a compound meter.  One that will give you vacuum and one that will give you blow.  If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at ebay user dcare2005 and we'll be more than glad to help you.  If you can't find a compound vac gauge, let us know and we'll gladly ship you the type that we use.....As of Dec. 31, 06 i can't believe this guide i put together for you has recieved 0 as to help, i guess you read it , and it does not mean anything to you that i sat down infront of this screen and give you info to help you with your love, COOL with me, others might get it and leave the yes to let me know that i have indeed helped them, as to the others that take the time to read and not vote well i guess it does not matter to you one way or another, thanks for reading but no thanks for not voicing your opinion!! David