vintage welder

[therigwelder]

looking for timing specs on a red seal continental f-163 with top mount distributor.and baseline rpms at idle

[Jebaroni]

Both the F162 and F163 engines were highly customizable. As such, they could be installed on a variety of applications. I worked on a Long model A tractor that used the F162 engine. I beleive that the only difference between the 162 and 163 was the stroke to give a bigger displacement. If I remember correctly, the distributor has a slotted tang on the end of the shaft so that you would either be in time or 180 degrees off. My manual does not give any information on actual degrees of timing. Also nothing on idle speed, but max rpm in my manual says 1800. Idle on many of these engines was a sloooow 4-500 rpms. I was able to get my tractor to run incredibly slow to where you just about hear every cylinder firing individually. I would position the distributor in the engine with the bolts loose and slowly crank the engine over by hand and see if the distributor tries to bind up anywhere. If it does, flip it 180 degrees. After that, you should be able to adust the timing by hand through rotating the distributor while it's running until it sounds even. Hope this helps a little bit.

Jeb