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Timing Light

Trying to start an engine for the first time can have its challenges:

Is the cam timing correct?
Is the fuel system plumbed correctly and are the fuel injectors flowing cleanly and with a good spray pattern?
Have the sparkplug wires been installed in the correct firing order?
And many, many more.

To add another twist to the puzzle would be to try to start the engine without knowing what the delivered ignition timing is.

For example:

You crank the engine for the first time and you get nothing. No response. It just cranks over and over. Not a cough, not a splutter.

Or. You crank the engine over for the first time and you get a cough, and a backfire. It sounds like it wants to start, but you can't be sure. You advance the timing a little, then retard it a little. Nothing seems to make much of a difference.

Where do you go from there if you don't have a timing light? Generally people keep on cranking the engine until the battery goes flat. Then they have 2 things: A dead battery and a lot of frustration.

SOLUTION: Get and Use a Timing Light!

Simple Timing Light

There is nothing wrong with using a simple timing light. For almost all applications, a Timing Light with either a single button to turn on the light, or no button (the light just continues to flash when the engine is running) at all will do the job it is designed to do:

That Is - "The light shows you when the spark event is occuring".

A fifty dollar timing light with do this. It will not only save you a huge amount of time, but it will get the job done right the first time.

Dial-Back Timing Light

Dial-Back timing lights are great, in that you only need one timing mark and you can dial-back the light flash with the actual ignition timing displayed on the timing light.

On the downside, if you use a dial-back timing light on a waste-spark ignition system, the dial-back timing light (because it uses engine RPM to calculate the ignition timing) will show an incorrect ignition timing.

On engines running waste-spark, make sure you do not use the dial-back function on a dial-back timing light.

Digital Timing Light

Timing Light for EFI Electronic Fuel Injection

Digital Timing Lights work in the same way as Dial-Back timing lights (but with button controls), but also often include extra functions such as RPM, Dwell and Voltage displays.

As with dial-back timing lights, when used on engines running waste-spark, make sure you do not use the dial-back function on a dial-back timing light.