Timing retard to help idle?

[don hopkins]

My car has been overheating at hiway speeds. So I took it to the local Porsche dealer rather than my usual guy and they said the timing on my 1965 912 was retarded a few degree in order to prevent the car from idling to fast. Does this make sense?

Also I asked to fix a soft brake pedal and he said he fixed a leak at one wheel but the soft pedal remained because the car had new pad but old rotors and/or because of worn wheel bearings. Does this make sense?

[BryanM]

short answer. no
1) there could be a number of reasons why it's overheating. what do you consider overheating?
2) 912 Board - Viewing Topic: brakes...looking for an answer to my problem (pay close attention to the first reply from tj)

[Rick Becker]

Don, which distributor do you have? The original 022 or ??? Here's one discussion of the best curved distributor for your 912:

912 Board - Viewing Topic: 022 distributor

Also, sometimes the engine bay is missing an overlooked seal that lets in heat, here's the link to find out more:

912 Registry :: Replacing an Engine Compartment Seal

Following up on Bryan 's comment, there are other factors such as the condition of the oil cooler and valves. And if originality is not a concern, some add an external oil cooler.

[don hopkins]

By overheat I mean the needle goes to the top of the gauge and almost goes into the red. I will try seal the engine compartment with duct tape and see what happens. How can I tell what distributor I have? I took the distributor off and a strange thing that I noticed when I put it back was the it didn't seat itself in a particular position but could be twisted back and forth. I guess it needs to be replaced.

Also, what difference does it make that there are two bleed points for each rear wheel. It would seem that if you used the one the greatest distance from the pedal all would be good.

I made a mistake taking my car to the Porsche dealer rather my usual guy who works on old Porsches all the time.

[BryanM]

the body of the dist has a set of numbers stamped into it. people generally distinguish them by using the last three digits.
remember to always set it at TDC before you remove the dist. it makes it easier to put it back in. to do this, turn the motor by hand until the mark on the pulley lines up with the mark on the timing cover, aka the 3rd piece. at the same time note that the rotor on the dist is pointing to the #1 spark plug wire. if it is pointing at the #3 spark plug wire, you must continue turning the motor until it points to #1.
the dist will only go in one way. once it seats you will notice the rotor should twist slightly and spring back. this is the mechanical advance mechanism working.

[Jaems]

You bleed the one farthest from the master cylinder first. The rear requires you to bleed both of the nipples on each brake.

You need to set the distributor to factory spec. 3 degrees before TDC. If it is set more BTDC this can cause the engine to run hot and burn up.

If you have the timing set correctly and it is still running hot. then you could have a plugged or dirty oil cooler.

The only distributors that will work properly on you engine are the 022, 031, 061(this one has the vacuum retard), and the RSR0012( this one is a recurved 009 that is curved for the 912 engines). Any of the others floating around out there like the 009 and 050 are originally for the VW and are not curved correctly for a street 912 engine.

[don hopkins]

Could the carbs being set too lean have anything to do with running hot?

[BryanM]

possibly. it can raise the cylinder head temp which can be transferred to the oil temp, which is how our temperature is measured.