Hot Tip for setting ignition timing

[nhramnl]

Originally Posted by Jeff Stout

When using a stock balancer and you have 2 marks on it, one for top dead center and 1 for your desired total timing. Always know which one is which. My pathetic performance yesterday at Az S/SS event was due to setting timing at top dead center mark. I wondered why car started up so easy and I had to reset idle. Another lesson learned on how to slow a car down and lose a race. I think the heat got to me.

Really simple solution that I've used for a long time... I clean the balancer really well (with Brakekleen), then find the timing mark I want (which, in your case, just has to NOT be the TDC mark) and I carefully "paint" the mark with White-Out. When the timing light is strobing, the painted mark just glows, and is impossible to miss. Hope that helps.