Humble isn't in my vocabulary Carl, bull headed Irishman is more
like it. Been setting the timing where the engine was designed
to run at since my first Stovebolt, which was a '51 and many
more after that over the past 58 years. My feeling is that's
where it belongs unless you've modified the basic engine
design. Other wise why would the design engineers do all that
engine testing that they've done to determine the best all
round ignition timing for these millions upon millions of GM
engines.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
Denny: I initially set the timing on the ball and the engine ran terrible and "popped" through the carb. Granted, I neglected to disconnect the vacuum to the vacuum advance. I reset the timing to the bottom of the "window" with the vacuum disconnected. No pinging and the engine now behaves itself. I probably have more room for further advance.
Now, why did Chevy set the stock timing where they did? My guess is they had to time to lowest potential grade of gasoline anyone would likely come across during the day. Modern gasoline is vastly superior and hence the engine will definitely respond favorably to a little advance. Even GM recognized this and allowed for advance if you found good gasoline.
I believe in the advance until it pings and back off slightly theory and used to do that with my '71 RS Camaro with personally built LT-1 engine.
