whats the right way to set up cam/and dizzy timing

hi there i have a e16 se with a piper bp300 rally cam and vernier pulley.am also running twin carbs does anyone have the correct ways to set my cam and dizzy timing up as its starting to do my head in lol.

Well setting the lift at tdc as per the cam makers spec is a good start. Then tune that on a dyno if you like.

Then to set the dizzy and carbs, take it to someone good rather than ballsing it up yourself and proclaiming carbs and cams are crap.

i wouldnt have a clue on setting up a vernier pully but i use a timing light for the dizzy timing on my cars

Ask Iain ( NOV4-SPORT ) who sets up his sport carbs, take it to the guy and job done

am pals with iain he uses seditas cars. i only want to know if anyone knows how many degrees or after my dizzy timing should be i found out how to set up the cam there the now

Ps 9/10 times the vernier pulley is set to 0 and it matches the standard pulley for timing the cam lol

I know it's just I have to set an overlap on the cam which I found out is 109degress atdc so it's just the dizzy timing now to find out

dizzy timing... set it to the haynes book with a strobe, then retard it a couple of degrees cos of unleaded.. then mark it with a scribe, then manually tweak it about a little till it sounds right all the way thru the rev range. its called tuning for a reason

I set the cam timing and dizzy timing on my 1.4 so should be similar. Mine was a Kent cam but as said above I set it dead central as Haynes says. I tweaked it a tiny bit each way but found that it ran better on zero.

Regarding the dizzy timing, mine had no cover and therefore no markings to set with a strobe light, if you have the markings it is very easy with a strobe light and is a 1.6 not designed with unleaded in mind? if it is them at the correct idle speed (once the car is warm) set it bang on the marks.

With no timing marks... I got it so it would at least run badly, then kept it going (sitting with a little throttle at this stage) until it was fully warmed up, then set the dizzy so I got as good an idle as possible by ear, then it was time to look at the Carb. I didn't go to an expert for tuning (too expensive) but what I did do was experiment on the road where I did repeated journeys. Mark the initial setting so there is always a base, then turn the dizzy a fraction one way each time until it is either better or worse and then do the same in the opposite direction, again, I ended up sitting with my initial by ear tuning. This takes a good few weeks but once set and marked that's it.

I did get it rolling roaded a few months afterwards because I was thinking of upgrading the engine further, the power output was pretty good actually and the guy coudn't believe it had been tuned by ear and then trial and error and commented that for any more gains it would need a lot of money spent which wouldn't be worth it for the tiny gains I would possibly get. I spoke to Ricky Gauld who is a bit of a legendary tuner up here who concurred that not much more gain could be got without an awful lot of money etc.

Hope this helps somehow

the e16se was designed to run on 4star, but could be adapted to unleaded.

as both fuels were readily available at the time, the factory figures were for leaded 4 star fuel.
the c16se was obviously designed for unleaded, as it had a cat.