Talk me into installing timing on my Howell.

[Blake]

I've read Ethan's thread about installing timing on a Howell and I've read all of Bill's FAQ's. I've also read lot's of other threads on here.

After recently installing a junkyard TBI onto my J10 with timing, I'm kinda curious. What is the big deal about timing?

My Howell TBI Waggy (360/727/4:10's/35's) run pretty well. My J10 (360/nv4500/5:38's/42's) also runs pretty well. About the same actually.

I'm planning to mod my Howell ECM with a ZIF chip so I can mess with it's tuning anyway (I wanna lower the idle and check the fuel tables). It has a big cap TFI and stock dizzy,

It's my DD for a 5 mile commute and I have other cars to drive.

Should I install timing on it? Just curious...

[FSJ Guy]

The big deal is that you can adjust timing from your seat. No need to get under the hood, get dirty, burn your hands on the radiator, etc.

I know, that probably doesn't sound like any fun to you, but for some of us, it's the cat's meow.

You can run a bin switcher and have a timing table for regular driving and one for towing. Or one for cheap gas and one for good gas. The options are endless.

But if you're happy with it as is, leave it alone. Esp. if it's your daily driver.

[Blake]

I think I'm pretty happy with it as it. I take it easy when driving and not looking for maximum performance. I'm just happy it runs Just about the only time I've ever felt compelled to change the timing was on the UA. I went all the way down to sea level and HAD to manually adjust timing as a result. Timed it by ear and it ran good. It wasn't a big deal for me to change it.

Hoping others will chime in...

[Billygoat]

I actually had Howell make the changes to it when I ordered it to run timing.
My thought is if you have the dang computer in the truck that controls the entire engine - why not?? It puts all the variables under one control system.
Just seemed like a waste to me to not take full advantage of the system.
Like my PCM upgrade along with an electronic shift tranny. Plus it is way easier to change the curve in a bin file 9when you know what you are doing) than playing with weights/springs/vaccum, you could write several and with a ZIF socket change and test them all with only a couple minute change over. I actually, made a change to my program, and reflashed my chip while filling up with gas, and still had to wait for the pump. (simple change and the computer was on for dataloggin, but you get the idea)

I am also part geek (ran work's IT and still backup, wrote an inventory/cash register program for a store) so tweaking a program to me is just as fun as welding.

I would say before you go to deep into something it is nice to have a backup vehicle, at least for a few days.

[babywag]

If it was me I'd change it.

Your call though, if you're happy with it and it runs good, leave it be.
Just tweak the fuel tables and call it good?

With my luck if I had a good running system, and messed with it, something would go wrong causing me additional grief & expense.

That said I love being about to play with the timing on a computer.