Timing Mark on XK Jaguars

Has anybody made a hatch mark on their harmonic balancer and added a pointer on the upper side of their XK engine. It is odd that the timing is underneath the car and you have to keep going back and forth to see where your timing actually is. I have a petronix without the veneer caliper click adjustments.

I propose that I put the engine at TDC manually turning it over and then making a mark on the balancer and somehow welding a pointer to the block. I would then use an ADVANCE style timing light to dial in whatever timing I desired. Just as long as both marks aligned and the dial on the gun was set all would be good?

Gerard

Are you familiar with the pointer on the XJ? Something like it, or similar. I don’t see any issues with the method you described, unless you are in a situation where you need to set static timing for some reason.

You could angle the pointer to fit what you need or maybe you’re lucky and the damper with the proper marks and the Jaguar pointer fit?
Beats welding to the timing cover in any case. By veneer I assume you meant to type vernier, so the fine adjustment on the distributor?

image

David

Looks like Jaguar got the hint in later years and moved the marks to a more accessible place. You could still use the factory markers if you ever needed TDC; but the new mark would also be TDC just scratched in a new location. Yes, vernier is what I meant. Don’t want to mess with dwell and points any more and today’s technology beats those by a mile. You could not tell my Pertronix from stock on initial examination, except for the lack of a vernier adjustment screw…

I am running 7 degrees btdc here at 5000 feet and it holds power all the way up to 11,000 feet elevation. Thinking I might bump it a bit to see what happens.

Gerard 3.8l

Gerard

Yes of course, the old marker would stay…
You‘ll like the electronic ignition. I‘ll look at a better picture of the pointer, it‘s on all XJs.


David

I had to make new timing marks on the 240 damper , as the keyway is in a diffrent place on a XJ6 engine ,it’s easier to use a timing light from the side :grin: