On cranking advance...
 

Why is cranking advance less than idle advance on MS2?

I had a conversation with Dimitris about this a few months back, and he was concerned about starter kickback.

But, in my experience, a higher (to a point) cranking advance means quicker starts.
If you were to deliberately retard the advance on a distributor setup, you would see that while cranking rpm increases due to less resistance, it takes longer for the engine to fire.

I mean, on a conventional distributor engine, cranking advance = idle advance.
And, on vacuum retard setups, cranking advance is even higher than idle advance - there's little or no vacuum while cranking, and once the engine is idling, manifold vacuum retards timing, allowing to increase to a preset value as vacuum decreases with the opening throttle.

So, could you guys please explain why I should not raise my cranking advance to 16 degrees from the initially preset 6 degrees?
I have been experimenting with 12 degrees, with much improved results so far..

I use 18. Ymmv

Hmmm.. I'll give it a try. Lemme fire up the laptop.

Thanks Brain, much better now with 18 degrees.