Ok, got a 360 mag. Carb. Swap in my 91. Still doing a little tuning. I got the pro-form electronic ignition kit from summit. 360 has the 91 318 timing cover, with the 360 harmonic balancer, 0 tdc lines up perfectly. So anyways, is it just me or is the mechanical/vacuum advance suppose advance the timing to the atdc Mark, when I rev it up and hold it at 2,500 it retards the timing towards the btdc side of the 0 Mark, if I advance my timing light to 28* it brings it back to 0* tdc. It runs damn good, idles fine and starts fast as hell, no pinging. So is it just me or is the advance mechanism working backwards?? Or will it so that with no load on it?? It'll chirp the tires with a blip of the throttle without engaging the secondaries on my 4 barrel. I always remember seeing the timing advance when the engine rpm increases on other vehicles. I still might get a better quality distributor, but I need the 2 wire plug, I noticed some have 3.

 

Moving timing to After Top Dead Center, would be retarding timing. Before Top Dead Center, is advancing the timing. So, things are working as they should. You might even be able to dial in a bit more advance..... Where is your base timing starting at?

 

Ok, so it's just me losing my mind, that's what I thought, lmao!!! Roughly 8* btdc. It's running better than it was, I'll have to wait till the weekend to do more it's gonna be raining the rest of the week. I've gotta set the vacuum advance also, for the max. So with 28 mechanically, and 8 initial (base) I'm at a total of 36* all in at 2,500 rpm. So I'm right in the sweet spot according to all the research I've done, I might try setting my initial at 10* before I set my vacuum. What would you recommend for a Max on the vacuum? I can't adjust the mechanical without springs, and or weights, according to pro-form they don't offer either for their distributors. So I'd have to find another source, or change the dizzy. Glad I got around to doing it, and I dialed in the idle mix on the carb while I was at it. Still has a bit of stumble when the secondaries kick in, I got the accelerator pump on the fat side, and now it's more of a stumble than a bog/delay so I think im gonna have to do a little re-jetting, before the engine would almost die, now it'll actually go, but like I said it has a little stumble, but I'm getting there. Just ain't got enough time, and we set the clocks back this weekend, oh joy.

 

For base timing, if you advance it too far, the engine becomes hard to start. (you will recognize you have gone to far, just as soon as you turn the key. ) 8 to 10 is probably good. As for max advance, take it as far as you can without getting spark knock. Probably in the neighborhood of 32 degrees, all in by 3K RPM or so. You'll have to experiment with that one too.