strobe timing

12-14 97 ron 10-12 95 ron, i set my points at about 40 thou or 1mm, dunno if that's book spec but my engine runs best at that, under the exhaust manifold it should have b200 embossed on the block.

Thanks for the reply. I've set the gap to 1mm but haven't done the timing yet. The timing scale is 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 deg btdc. Does this mean that 12 deg btdc would have to be an estimate? Also, still can't seem to find the engine code. There are large letter SN embossed at the lower part of the block on the exhaust side, and a few numbers next to No. 4 spark plug, but that's on the head. Does the exhaust manifold have to come of for the code to be visible? Tried a mirror to look, did'nt work. Sorry for the trouble on such a trivial matter.

Volvo emissions plate 

Well, went through the car's registration, and there it was, B19A, don't know where they got that off, though. There is a printed plate on the right side, with weights and chasis number and some other figures, but no engine code and no timing figures. There's a red sticker on the timing cover with the numbers 876 in black. So, is this engine really an underbored B21? Were there any other volvos that these engines were used on?(cos knowing that would make life so much easier when trying to buy parts and trying to convince the salesman that the car is not a 1984 2.4L 240GL)..and most importantly,.. would the ignition timing and contact breaker gap still be the same as what was suggested in the previous posts?

A quick way to do the timing that takes into account engine wear etc is to advance the timing so that the idle increases and then starts to decrease, from the point the idle started to decrease retard the timing 5-6 degrees and that should be about optimum for that engine, i can't claim credit as it's one of david vizards tricks but i've found it works pretty well.

So i'm carrying around a chunk of extra weight in the engine. Yup, most of the 240s from that era were 2.3L, not 2.4L, my mistake. So far i haven't come across any other 240s in this country with the same engine as ours..weird.. I'll try to adjust the timing as Les suggested..then it's on to the carb, for which i'm sure more help will be needed.. Thanks to everyone for the help, really appreciated.

Thankfully your doing it the right way round, too many people try to sort ignition problems by adjusting the carb and then say carbs are rubbish because it didn't fix the problem, regards les.