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Volvo Penta 230a Timing

W

Whitetailtime

New member
Hello Board. I have to say I've been reading your boards for a couple years but never posted. I wealth of knowledge here.

First off I am by no means a mechanic.

This is year decided to replace the points in my Volvo Penta with a pertronix kit.

the boat ran ok before but was hard to start cold and a real pain. Up to speed no problem.


After a few mishaps on the installation I got the unit in and it fired up great. Sounded better than it had ever in the past on idle and low speed.
It was backfiring through the carb at higher rpm.
I checked the timing and it was off quite a bit but set it to 6 btdc as per manual.
It was smooth all the way up to 4000rpm
took it to the water and there was no top speed under load.
The boat would only chug along at about 3000rpm

checked the timing it was still good. But noticed when reving up to 4000rpm the timing mark did not advance. It remained at or close to 6btdc. The engine still sounded great though.

Now after a sllight slip checking plug wires I just installed
New plug wires
New ignition coil

i will be taking the boat to the water in the next few days.

My my question tho is why would the timing not be advance when checking it with the light?

I looked at the part diagram for the distributor and don't see any type of ad bar built in to it.

Please help
 
Pull the cap and see if the can turn the rotor it sounds like the distributor needs service and the mechanical advance is seized up. You may be able to put a couple drops of motor oil down the center top of the shaft and see if you can get it to loosen up. But you should disassemble the distributor and clean it properly just find a good point to line up the rotor when you put it back in. The best is to put it on TDC for #1 cylinder on the compression stroke. Use regular engine oil on the movable parts when you put it back together.
 
Do not run it until you get the progressive timing advance working properly it will burn a hole in the pistons rather quickly and cook the valves.
 
Ok.

It it had lots of power last year with the points.

You think the advance seized up over winter?

also any idea why the distributor diagram doesn't list the mechanical advance parts?
 
That is the volvo B230 block. Do the engine a favor and put the points back in there. It can be tricky to get the points plate out to get to the flyweights but remove the plate and put a drop of engine oil on the pivot points and up top where the rotor goes and then put it back together after it has full motion on the mechanical advance and it returns all the way back to its stops. Use a dwell meter when adjust the points you want 62 degrees dwell as close as possible then set the timing at 6-DBTDC. The dwell is very important somewhere between .014 and .015 inch gap. At Wot rpms you should have between 32-36 DBTDC max advance.
 
I just rebuilt my AQ131a and I dont believe you can achieve 62 degrees dwell with the pertronix module. Do you have a dwell meter? The dwell is the amount of time the points stay closed to charge the coil. You may be OK but I have heard the pertronix modules can be problematic from guys here. Its easier to replace points out on the water.
 
So Coles notes version. To pull the distributor, Mark its current position them just remove the bolt and pull it straight out?

do the service as needed and replace the dissy exactly as it was taken out!?
 
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