DO YOU HAVE AN OLDER CAR WITH NON COMPUTER CONTROLLED TIMING?
	I’ve had a few questions about older vehicles with carburetors and non computer controlled timing adjustments.

LOTS OF INFORMATION CAN COME FROM RACE CAR PREPARATION.
	Here’s is a trick I found while preparing and maintaining 11 race cars for others, driving professionally myself and my shops were servicing vehicles that were driven daily. You can use it to increase fuel economy and HP. The problem is: it only works with non-computer controlled timing.

MILEAGEMAN1 IS ESSENTIAL.
	First you have to have Mileageman1, or some other system if you don’t mind settling for something that might or might not might work, to take advantage of the savings and power increases.

WHAT IS FLAME PROPAGATION?

Most of us are aware if we can advance the timing and get a longer, more efficient burn of the fuel in the cylinder, known as flame propagation, we’ll get better mileage and more horsepower. Generally, that’s only possible to do if we buy higher priced gas with an increased octane rating. But, you don’t have to pay more at the pump even if power is more important than saving money, you have a vehicle that has a higher than normal compression ratio or a distributor advance curve that’s been altered. A truism: the increased gain won’t make up for the extra price at the pump.

SLOW THE BURN, RAISE THE OCTANE.
	There is another way to slow the flame propagation, one that doesn’t cost you extra every time you gas up, it actually saves you money and then rewards you for driving with a light foot. Mileageman1 stage one provides the way to do that.

DYNO PROVEN.

When part of my business was preparing and driving race cars, a lot of research and testing was done using a chassis dynamometer. But, once we got to the race track we found things weren’t the same in real life as they were in the shop. The climate in Southern California was hotter and drier than in Seattle, WA and the octane of the fuel would vary as much as 2 points. We didn’t have deep pockets and controlled octane ratings like some present day racers, which necessitated some different thinking.

TOO MUCH OR TOO LITTLE.
	The main horsepower increase, after all race spec legal items were done, was to advance the timing. But, there’s a very fine line here and if you advance the timing too far, you’ll get pre-ignition and destroy the engine. It was, and is, a balancing act between too little, and be down on horsepower, or too much and damage the engine. Plus, if the weather changed, the timing had to be changed.

THE SHOP AND REAL LIFE ARE NOT ALWAYS THE SAME.

In the shop, the easiest way to make the changes, was to sit in the car, watch the dyno readings and change the timing. Easier said than done if you’re in a car at speed, unless you can turn the distributor from the cockpit or driver’s seat. I did that by installing a locking type throttle cable, the same as found on some lawn mowers and stationary engine applications. I had to loosen the distributor enough to be able to rotate it by pushing and pulling on the throttle control knob. When maximum HP was reached I locked the cable in place and could tighten the distributor lock bolt or leave it if the changes were made during a race. The engine RPM had to be high enough so that the distributor was at full advance, otherwise the engine could be destroyed by pre ignition (that pinging sound) when you stepped on the gas. The whole procedure was very complicated and I found an easier way for working with cars driven on the street.

A TEST DRIVE WILL TELL.

If you have a four or five speed manual transmission, find a flat, deserted road on a day with no wind and accelerate to 35 mph. Put the vehicle in fourth gear and hold it at a steady speed (steady is very important). Next push the accelerator pedal to the floor, without spinning the tires if you have a lot of HP. You should hear one or two pings, no more than two and none after 40 mph. If you hear pinging over 40, or more than two, the timing is too far advanced. You need to retard the timing otherwise you’ll damage the engine.

I CALL IT HUNTING.

Once you have that done, on the same road, under the same exact conditions and at the 35 MPH, put the vehicle in fourth and on cruise control, if you don’t have a steady foot (steady is even more important here), and without accelerating or decelerating, see if there is any surging. It’s like the tires are in synch but slightly out of round, not really a misfire, more like the car is hunting for a steady speed. If that’s the case, the timing is too far retarded.

BE PATIENT AND LEARN
	The entire process takes some practice, but once you have the technique mastered, you can do it by the sound of the engine when idling. That takes a whole lot of practice and a very well trained ear.

CHOKE CABLES ARE CHEAP.
	You can do the timing process while driving using the locking choke or accelerator cable trick. If you have an automatic transmission, you have to disconnect the throttle kick down so the transmission won’t shift under full throttle.

THE COMPUTER WILL WORK TO YOUR ADVANTAGE IN LATE MODELS.
	The same basic gains can be realized by changing the distributor advance curve and working with the on board computer, but that’s far too complicated to explain here.

NEXT YEAR IS MILAGEMAN1'S 40TH BIRTHDAY.
	The early prototype Mileageman1 was born and refined in the late 1960s, and early 1970s during the first energy crisis. Mileageman1 has proven itself over the last 39+ years to save on fuel, keep the engine cleaner and increase HP through efficiency.