Apparently my timing was off the chart and has been for some time. 4 or 5 years ago I let a local diesel shop "time" my truck. I will not name them but when they popped the gear and just turned the pump shaft with a pair of slipjoints and called it done I knew I was in trouble. I ordered the Miller kit as soon as I babied it home and timed it myself. I intended and thought I had set it for 14.25*. Been this since then, about 100K miles.

Yesterday I was putting in 370s and figured I needed to go to 16.5* so I got out the tools and started checking. Baseline reading was 0.240" or 6.0 mm This is on a stock 180 HP 2022 CPL pump, nothing touched in the pumped but the star wheel. My notes from when I timed it originally showed that the diesel shop had left it at 0.270" or 6.86 mm.

Can anybody tell me what the timing was? I ran it back to 5.0 mm lift since the 370s and #10 plate are going in. Last thing I need is to toast the head gasket.

Anybody have a timing chart handy that goes that high? I have the one I was going by the first time but didn't go look for a newer version online.

 

6mm = 20-21°
Must have been hard to start.

 

That is the funny thing about it - it ran fine, started easy, but had a higher pitch to the engine noise than I have noticed on other 12 valves. With the timing at 16.5 and the 370s now she sounds deeper.

I should have done this a long time ago. Throttle response is immediate now. Helps to have a low stall torque converter now.

Other thing I noticed is that the shutdown squeak disappeared. Had been getting worse for a while. If my timing slipped it should have retarded, not advanced, or so I thought. Either that or I screwed up something before and have been living with it.