Hi,I have just checked the timing on my car with a strobe light and have found the following-
At full advance,the timing is one tooth over the 7th tooth from 8 degrees.
At idle,its probably 3 teeth over advanced.
I havent tried adjusting it yet,I assume that if I retard the idle timing it will also retard the full advance as well.
I have, at present, no pinging issues,just wont start mainly while hot,without spinning the engine over for a while.Seems ok when cold.
Any ideas?

If you are running points, replace advanced weights and bin the strobe timing gun.

Whoops,forgot to say running on luminition

-Do you give full throttle when you start it while hot, you should..... then it will start a lot easier.

- Vaporising petrol in the carburator/petrol hose when hot, so when you start the pump has to bring in new fuel first?

- Coil more or less gone, change the 2 wires on the coil, or try another one.

Hi Ipgo,yes,I give it full throttle when starting,but it still turns over for longer than I would expect before it starts.
I have fitted an Ecas yellow coil,that made no difference.
I was wondering about the fuel syphoning back,so have fitted a small non return valve just before the carb inlet.Will see what its like next week.
I was wondering about the idle timing though.I don' know how critical it is for good starting.

When youre ignition is (way) to early the startermotor has a hard time starting the engine, it looks likes the startermotor dies, then revs again then suddenly dies again and so on, when this is not happening at youre engine then it isn't far to early, when you kill youre ignition (by the key) and youre engine is keeps on iddling a little then youre ignition is a little to early at iddle.

Take a good loke at youre strobe device at some newer modells you can build in a little delay so it looks like youre engine sparks to soon......

Put a 6mm drill into the hole at the flywheel, make a mark at the flywheel and youre engine/earbox housing let the engine iddle (850) rpm and look if it is spot on with youre strobe.


If you have an original ignition box then mount that (or take a friends 2cv with original ignition box) and look how youre strobe behaves!! then you know how to handle it

When youre engine revs higher then 850 rpm the ignition advance rapidly builds up so by 1000 rpm it can be 3 degrees already, by 2000 rpm it can be 10 degrees by 3000 rpm 20 degrees (+ the advance by iddle)

The main thing is to prevent pinging, this is the the worst for youre engine
at high rpm. At low rpm it is acceptable most '90 japanese cars are pinging at
1000 to 1500 rpm........

Maybe look at your valves, particular exhaust. If little or no gab hot starting can be hell.

Use the strobe to set the timing at max advance , its unlikley you will damage an engine at idle and so the concern with the timing at idle should be of secondary concern with setting the timing

The dwell is set with the Lummi unit and so you cant fiddle with that (presuming its the correct Lumi kit for the 2cv!)

A strobe gun IS a usefull tool when you can use it.

As with many you've started falling into the trap of spending $$$$ when if you take the time to get it running spot on then the upgrades will make a noticeable difference, a poorly set up engine may not be improved by shiny trinkets.

Sean

Ps and if its really so hot you have to ask yourself why! too lean, too advanced?

Ipgo,I havent checked the idle speed with a tacho.Could be that the idle speed is too fast.Will check it tommorow.
Sean,I havent invested in shiney trinkets,the Luminition was already fitted to the car when I bought it.The yellow coil I had already bought for my other car so I just fitted it to eliminate the coil.The engine isnt overheating,its just hard to start when hot(as opposed to cold).I am aware that it could be the fuel running back from the carb,will know that tommorow.And I do know how to use a strobe.I was just asking about the idle timing really.How critical is it to have it at 8 degrees? If its to far advanced will the engine be hard to start?

apologies- got the impression that you were getting expensive bits to try to sort a problem

no not much really when setting up an engine i usually just pop the points in and set them to open as close as possible to ideal - start the engine set the dwell using the meter then set the timing with the strobe - the timing can easily be 3 teeth out and it will start

mixture and valve gaps will have more of an effect.
there is a good video on You tube about setting the mixture on the factory fitted solex carbs on aircooled VWs its exactly the same for the solexes on ours
and plenty on valve gaps here