saulesses

Hi, I Will greatly appreciate if somebody can guide me in this matter I have a Formula with 420 engines I rebuilt my engines and bought a new Crane Sprocket kit with bearing which can be set either 4 degrees retarded neutral or 4 degrees ahead, woul like to know what shoul be the correct timing for my engine, because I have one of the engines which is the one I replaced the sprocket sound much different that the other one it seems lazy. The other engine has the mercruiser original sprocket with only one position. Thanks

Griff

You should install the gear at the 0* mark.

MILD THUNDER

iTrader: (3)

I would think you would want to install it "straight up" in the nuetral position. If you have it retarded, your low end power might suffer.

formula31

You really need a degree wheel and the expertise to find tdc and really set the cam where it belongs. Im out of town but if I remember right, the 420 was set at 104-106 ICL.

fastestbowtie

If the stock Merc timing set is a single keyway gear set then it would have been installed straight up or at "0". This is the way you want to install the new one. Just be careful when setting it up, the crank gear should have a total of 6 markings on it (if it has 3 keyways), one of the marking indicates which keyway to use, then there will be another identical mark that is used to lign up with the mark on the cam gear. This is extremely important because if you use the mark denoting the keyway to align with the cam gear mark, your cam timing will be way off (much more than 4 degrees). As far as using a degree wheel, that would be the most accurate way to go, but then you would need to check the other motor to see where it is as well. Usually the ICL (intake centerline) is ground into the cam and should be close with the timing set installed straight up.