Found the problem, now just what to do...

[hemicat]

Been battling with popping out of the carbs and come to find out that the timing was off. Readjusted that and runs much better but still have a slight major problem. Cylinder #3 has always given me problems so I decided to check each wire with the timing light and found that it is firing 7* before the rest. #1,2 and 4 are all firing at 10* BTDC while #3 is firing at 17* BTDC. I have tried 5 different distributors and all have done the same thing. Have tried 009 with points, 009 with pertronix and currently running Magnaspark digital. Dont know what is causing this and with the 009's I could rotate the body and swap plug wires (turn body 90* and move wires the same 90*) and the next cylinder would fire different. Havent tried that with this one yet. But since im stuck with what I have does anyone have any corrective measures that could help solve this problem?

[harryset]

Check your distributor cap and see if the plug hole for #3 is physically offset a little from the others. Some older VW's had #3 advanced a tad due to heat problems in that corner of the engine.

[hemicat]

Just went out and measured and nothing is the same. Tried measuring from post to post and nothing measured the same. Then I tried measuring from center coil post to each plug wire post and none of them were the same either. I could see something like 2 or 3 degrees but not 7. Getting ready to go efi and was considering going with crank trigger but dont like the idea of loosing my equalizer pully. So where does this leave me? Other than with a painful running engine?!?

[Worms]

It's not the Dizzy cap which alters the #3 timing, it's the cam lobes on the dizzy shaft. I think it is only supposed to be 2 or 3 degrees anyway.

The only way that could really happen would be if your TDC timing marks were mis-measured and marked - You say you have tried several dizzies - that rules out anything out else really. - wor lobes giving different swell/timing and badly machined loabes wouldn't be common to all dithose dizzies, plus the electronic units don't use the lobes, the have magnets for the pickups.

[zippyghia]

How's your endfloat.Crank float sends timing all over the place as it moves the dizzy shaft.

[SCOTTRODS]

How's your endfloat.Crank float sends timing all over the place as it moves the dizzy shaft.

This is a good puzzle.

Crankshaft sounds reasonable,.... 'cept it should show up on all cylinders.

If the pulley marks were off, it'd be off on all 4 also. I don't think it's any of the above issues either.... Still curious on this one. Keep pounding away and let us know what's figured out eventually. I can't think of a thing that would give the shared results.

[hemicat]

Sorry to keep everyone waiting but it's been really busy at work. I contacted cb performance and it turned out to be a software issue. They sent me a software update and its been better. Waiting for another but at least now I'm back up and running good.

[SCOTTRODS]

Sorry to keep everyone waiting but it's been really busy at work. I contacted cb performance and it turned out to be a software issue. They sent me a software update and its been better. Waiting for another but at least now I'm back up and running good.

Very good.... At least I know I'm not missing my T-shoot mind...