Hey Chevynut, please give me your thoughts.
I installed a GM Performanve 330 HP engine in my 57.
Starts right up and runs pretty good. Not to thrilled with the Holley carb and may try some sort of EFI in the future.
So let's talk timing. Instructions said set at 10 degrees BTDC. Ok, starts and runs good. Idle a bit rough and a bit of off idle stumble, which certainly could be a carb issue.
I set timing a couple more degrees advanced, like we did it in the old days, for altitude here (Denver)
Idle is better, off idle lag better.
Now if I advance it a few more degrees, idle smooths out and off idle issue much better.
As kids we used to drop in the distributed, advance it until the starter started dragging, then back it off until the started spun freely and that's where we left it. Don't recall ever having an issue ( but that was nearly 50 years ago, ha ha) and that likely equated to 16 or more degrees advance.
So my question... Is recommended timing more an issue with the factory meeting emissions standards? And, is there any issue involved running a little more advance?
Appreciate everyone's thoughts.