sprayed347

iam having problems with my sbf 8.2 deck 363 eating flywheels and sounding like a chevy that needs to be shimmed diddnt start till i locked it out.I was having some tuning issues so i locked it out and it helped but i didnt have a start retard...33deg of timing it kicked back a couple of times while hot broke the flywheel. so i bought a digital retard from msd. and put the start retard at 20 deg..same problem it kicked back broke the fly wheel i think again.disconnect the coil to take the fire away and it sounds the same. sooo is 20 deg too much and it tried to light the wrong cyl.kicked back and broke again.or do i even need to worry about locking it out with a 200 shot? sorry iam rambling but i want this fixed.it is a 4.125 bore with 13.5 compression.

gearhead1011

If it's still making the noise with the coil unplugged the timing has nothing to do with the problem unless you didn't try this until after it broke the flywheel or starter. Ford starters use the separator plate to align the starter and if that plate is missing or damaged it's near impossible to get the starter aligned. You do need to make sure the rotor is phased properly.

482

I have a starter saver set on 10 deg that works very well with mine.
13.5 w/distributor locked out.
20deg may be to much!
I think that is why some don't use the retard on the 7al3, because it is 20 degrees
But yes definitely check the rotor phasing.